'I just shut my eyes'

Care assistant Geraldine Flanagan had a heart attack at age 33. She talks to CLAIRE O'CONNELL

I’M 33 AND I had my third baby, Liam, last January – it was my second C-section. For a couple of weeks I was housebound, trying to get over the section, and a couple of months later when I got back on my feet properly the weather improved and I thought right, it’s time to get into shape.

I started walking and I did a little bit of jogging and I took up karate. Basically I was trying to get back to myself, get my figure back.

Then, on August 14th, I was in the sitting room with my husband, Richard, and I decided to practice some karate moves. All of a sudden I didn’t feel well. Richard asked me if I was alright, and you know women, we would always say, ‘I’m fine, I’m grand’. But I knew I wasn’t.

I went upstairs and he came up after me. At first I was nauseous, then I got a pain and tightness in my chest. The pain didn’t go away and then it started to go down my left arm and Richard thought this wasn’t normal, so he rang the ambulance. It all happened over the course of minutes and it was very scary.

My friend Sharon who lives across the road came over and minded my kids – only for her I’d be lost, too – and myself and Richard went to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.

When we got there, the staff were brilliant. I still had pain in my chest and left arm and it was really severe. They were doing an ECG on me and that’s all I remember, because then I went into cardiac arrest and they had to bring me back.

I do remember waking up after they resuscitated me and I just thought, ‘I know what they are doing’, because I have first aid in my background, and I thought, ‘I have no control, so I may as well let them get on with it’, and I just shut my eyes.

To lose total control of your body is very scary, but at least I was in the hands of the right people.

I was brought from Blanchardstown to the Mater Hospital to get two stents put in.

I had left my house at around 11.30am and I was coming out of the lab at 2.30pm in the Mater, they were that quick. Only for that, and for Richard deciding we needed to get to the hospital, I would have been dead. It’s so important to act quickly.

I was in hospital for seven days, and two days after it initially happened I got another stent in. It was only then, when I was awake and getting it done that time, I realised just what they had done that first night – the doctors and nurses are just unbelievable in what they can do.

The whole thing was such a shock because the heart attack had really come out of nowhere. My cholesterol and blood pressure had been fine, there was no family history of this kind of thing happening and, while at one time I was a smoker, after I had the kids I would have only had one or two – maybe at the weekend – and I would never have smoked around them, so I was more of a social smoker. I don’t smoke any more.

The only thing I can remember in the run up to the heart attack was that I was exercising a good bit and I started so quickly and vigorously, so I’d say to anyone else to get checked medically before rushing into things.

Otherwise, they still can’t really explain it, apart from saying that there was total blockage in one part of the artery. Apparently, there was plaque build-up and then the blood platelets went in and caused a clot. I’m on medication now for the forseeable future.

After the heart attack, I was doing really well in intensive care, so I was let home after a week. I left thinking it was like a dream, it didn’t happen to me. I totally blocked it out.

And I am very active, especially with the kids, so when I got out I was rearing to go but it’s unbelievable – I would get up and wash the dishes and straight away I would be so tired. It was continuous tiredness, I think to do with my heart healing. I wasn’t fully back to myself around the kids for six or seven weeks.

When I was in hospital initially, my sister was brilliant – she minded my three boys, along with her kids. They knew what had happened but they couldn’t come in and see me. That was harder for me than for them though, because they were having such a good time with their cousins.

Then when I came home we made a big fuss and bought them toys. But there were times when Seán and Thomas kept asking me when I’d be back, even if I was only going around the corner to the shop or across the road to my friend’s house. Then when I’d come home they would be at the door saying they had missed me. They are a bit more wary now about where I’m going and when I’m coming home.

I have just made a point of doing more things with them. Not that I didn’t before, but I am more conscious now that every day is precious. We got such a shock, that’s the way we are now.

I think the kids made me bounce back, and my parents were brilliant as well. I got help to clean the house once a week, and there was family support where a girl would come up and help me with the baby, to get out for a walk.

After the heart attack you can go into doom and gloom for a few weeks, it’s common enough to get a bit depressed. And you can get very anxious. When I came out at the beginning I walked around to the shop and I was so tired I couldn’t walk home, I had to get someone to collect me. I was so nervous, you don’t know how much you can push yourself.

I did an eight-week cardiac rehabilitation programme with the Mater, they build your strength back up using exercise machines and they keep you motivated with talks from the dietician and psychologist and pharmacist. When I went there first I was so tired all the time, I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but after the eight weeks I felt like a different person.

They said to us there to look after yourself, and that your family and job come next. Because if you don’t look after yourself, you’re not going to be able to look after your family. So I am trying very hard to make sure I am there for the kids growing up.

I have to make more time for me. I have to watch my diet, to make sure I’m taking my medication, to make sure I get to relax and to get regular exercise to keep my arteries open.

I want to do fundraising now, the doctors and the nurses were so fantastic in Blanchardstown and the Mater, I wouldn’t be here without them. They said that, if it had been five minutes later, I’d be dead.

For more information about heart health, see the Irish Heart Foundation’s website, www.irish heart.ie, or call its information line on 1890-432787 weekdays between 10am and 5pm