A 61-year-old runner says a television advert may have helped save his life after he suffered a heart attack just hours after completing a 10km event in Rotorua last year.
Martin Boult said he had always been active — swimming, cycling and running four times a week — and didn't see himself as the "poster boy" for heart conditions.
"So when I started feeling off during the run, I didn’t think 'heart attack'."
At the 7km mark of the Rotorua Forest Run in August, he began to feel unwell, with exhaustion and a sense of impending doom setting in by the time he had returned to his hotel.
The Palmerston North man said: "I jumped into the shower, and it was then I remembered the advertisement by the Heart Foundation that said the worst thing you can do if you’re feeling unwell is to just lie down or take a shower. I thought, 'You idiot, what am I doing? Go get checked'."
His wife, seeing how pale Boult looked, gave him a choice: head to Whakatāne to visit friends as planned or go to the hospital.
Boult chose the latter, saying he was "very fortunate" that he made the choice to go and get checked.
Doctors at Rotorua Hospital quickly detected elevated levels of troponin — an enzyme that signals injury to the heart.
"My cardiologist later said, ‘You came in early - that’s major.’ My troponin was low but rising fast. Another hour or two and things could’ve been a lot worse," Boult said.
An angiogram at Wellington Hospital the next day confirmed a serious cardiac event, but within 48 hours Boult was back home.
"I’m still wrapping my head around it. Physically, I’m recovering - mentally, that’s been the harder journey. It’s sobering to think how close it was. One small decision changed everything."
His message to the public is that heart attacks didn't always announce themselves with clutching chest pain.
"There is a sense of impending doom that people get when they have a heart event, a fear they’re going to die. You get this feeling of, something is really wrong with me. That’s the feeling I had. I wasn’t in massive pain or going to vomit or faint. I was just not feeling right," he said.
"People, especially men, think it’s only a crisis if you get stabbing chest pain, collapse or can’t breathe. I just felt off. That’s the danger zone, because it’s so easy to ignore."
He hoped sharing his story would make others pause for thought too.
"That ad kept nagging at me, and I’m grateful it did. If you’re not feeling right, get checked."
NZ's biggest killer
Taking place this month, the Big Heart Appeal is the Heart Foundation’s biggest annual fundraising event, asking New Zealanders to donate during the street collection on February 27 and February 28, or online, to help fight New Zealand’s single biggest killer: heart disease.
“One Kiwi dies from heart disease every 90 minutes,” said Heart Foundation medical director Dr Gerry Devlin.
“It’s the single biggest killer in New Zealand and globally.”
Devlin said heart attacks are also on the increase and today, every 45 minutes, a New Zealander is admitted to hospital with a heart attack.
Funds raised through the Big Heart Appeal help make a big difference, supporting research that leads to improved treatments for the disease and investing in overseas training for young cardiologists so they can bring home the skills to benefit New Zealanders.
The Heart Foundation has helped drive major advances in treating heart disease thanks to donations.
“Outcomes for people affected by heart attacks, cardiac arrest and other heart conditions have greatly improved thanks to the generosity of kind-hearted New Zealanders and their support of our work, but there is still much to be done,” Devlin said.
SHARE ME