Welcome to Dr. Warrick's podcast channel. Warrick is a practicing cardiologist and author with a passion for improving care by helping patients understand their heart health through education. Warrick believes educated patients get the best health care. Discover and understand the latest approaches and technology in heart care and how this might apply to you or someone you love. Hi, my name is Dr. Warrick Bishop and thank you for joining me on my podcast station. Today I'd like to share with you a story that's a personal story and one that I think is incredibly impactful and a reminder of how we have to take our health and our symptoms seriously. A number of years ago, Almost 10 years ago, in fact, I received a call in the middle of the night from a very good friend of mine. At the time, I was about 45 years of age, maybe a little bit older, and this good friend, who happened to be in another city, actually, was about 10 years younger, so mid perhaps to mid to late 30s. Anyway, his name was Craig, and Craig called me up literally at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. I don't remember exactly. It woke me from a deep sleep. I was not on call. I wasn't expecting the phone to go, and this voice on the other side. On the other end of the phone said, was, it's Craig here. I've got chest pain. Well, I was quite dozy, sleepy, but quickly woke. This man who was only mid-30s calling me up and asking me what he should do with the pain in his chest. Well, I said to Craig, well, is this like pain that you've had before? He said, no. I said, is this, could this be indigestion pain? Have you had indigestion pain before? He said, no, this was not like indigestion pain, and he doesn't normally get indigestion pain. He really didn't have any risk factors. His dad, in his mid-60s, to early 70s, was diabetic and had a bit of high blood pressure. And Craig himself probably had a little bit of high blood pressure, but that was it. One, two o'clock in the morning, Craig had two kids under five years of age and a wife who was with him at the time, who was also awake. The children obviously were asleep. I said to this friend, I said, mate, If it's not indigestion and you just don't know what it is, it's a pain in your chest and it's been there for a period of time and it doesn't feel right to such a degree that you've called me in the middle of the night, you need to go to hospital. I can't help you over the phone. You need medical care, medical attention and a full medical assessment to know what's going on. I said, you know, mate, you either go to the hospital now and potentially they could save your life. Because it could be your heart. Or you go to the hospital and you waste a night. And what's the big deal? Anyway, I went back to bed. I actually slept quite well. Didn't think too much more about it until I was... I received a text at 7.30 the next morning from his wife who advised me that within 20 minutes of arriving at the hospital, Craig had had two full-blown cardiac arrests. I can't begin to tell you how the hair on the back of my neck stood up and how my stomach turned. This was a man... in his mid-30s, looked otherwise fit and well with two children under five years of age. He survived the night. He survives now. He ended up being resuscitated twice and received a stent in the left anterior descending artery, the main artery down the front of the heart. I felt cold inside when I thought to myself, what if I hadn't made a stand? for him to go to hospital? What if 20 minutes from me hanging up, he had an arrest at home in his bed with his wife beside him and his two children under five years of age in the room next door? This is an incredible story and it's true. Fortunately, Craig is still alive today. Fortunately, he went to hospital when something just wasn't right. And fortunately, he got the care that he required. There's not much more to say about that other than regularly I say to patients, please, if something's not right, get it checked out. Yes, you might waste time at hospital. Yes, you might have a sleepless night. Yes, it may not be your heart. But what if it is? What if someone could save your life? What if Craig hadn't gone to the hospital that night? I can assure you that his wife would not have been able to resuscitate him twice in their home, in their marital bed, which would have been soft, no equipment, no access, no defibrillator. It would have been just not worth thinking about. So please. Please, if something's not right, if it's anywhere between your eyeballs and your belly button, and there's a symptom that you can't explain, that doesn't have a simple reason behind it, it could be your heart. Get it checked. Sometimes it's an arm ache. Sometimes it's a jaw ache. Sometimes it's an ache between the shoulder blades or in one shoulder. Sometimes it's like indigestion but not quite. Or sometimes it is like indigestion and there are people who blame the food they had for a meal that night. Although they don't normally get indigestion. So please be careful. Please use common sense. Please realise that this is really serious. I know, I don't want people to go to the hospital all the time with every ache or pain or something that doesn't seem important because you'll clog up the system. But this guy, this friend called me at one o'clock in the morning because something wasn't right. So if you know something's not right, please act on it. Please look after yourself. I really do wish you the best, the best health outcome. I'm going to wrap it up there. So take care. Bye for now. And thank you so much for joining me. If you do have any suggestions on other podcast topics, please get in touch through the website and let me know. Take care. Bye for now. 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