\n
She was ventilated for 11 days in hospital and her four children flew out to Spain as it was feared the worst might happen.<\/p>\n
“I remember nothing until day four when I was brought round but a few hours later, I was ventilated again because both my lungs collapsed,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I was woken four days later but I then developed laryngeal stridor, which makes your breathing noisy and harder to do, and which is potentially life-threatening, due to being ventilated too quickly, too many times. I then had to be ventilated again. “<\/p>\n
It was not until February that she was allowed to fly home.<\/p>\n
Even then she had to use a wheelchair, as she had experienced so much muscle wastage over her time in hospital.<\/p>\n
She said it was a “horrendous,” not just for her but for her husband and children.<\/p>\n
“Never in a million years did I think something like this could happen to me.<\/p>\n
“I was fit, healthy, ate really well, I had no worries about my health.”<\/p>\n
When she returned home she had more problems. <\/p>\n
“I wasn’t home long when I passed out one day and had to be admitted to Altnagelvin Hospital for a week.<\/p>\n
“The pandemic started soon after I was discharged so unfortunately, I didn’t get any cardiac rehab which would have been so beneficial to my recovery.”<\/p>\n
She has also suffered from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and has an ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) fitted which is a small electrical device because I’m at high risk of having another cardiac arrest.”<\/p>\n
Sandra’s heart attack and cardiac arrest continue to affect her life to this day and there are still days when she can “do very little”.<\/p>\n
Even “something as simple as throwing a duvet on the bed”, can leave her breathless.<\/p>\n
She has never been able to return to work, though she volunteers with NI Chest Heart and Stroke and enjoys sewing. <\/p>\n
But she is upbeat and grateful to be alive.<\/p>\n
“Not many people survive what my body put me through.”<\/p>\n
All four of her children have tested clear for high blood pressure.<\/p>\n
The Belfast Health Trust operates a screening service for what it calls a “silent condition”. <\/p>\n
“When someone is diagnosed with FH, their relatives are contacted and offered testing by a team of specialist nurses who cover all of Northern Ireland,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“Thanks to this programme, Northern Ireland has the highest rate of identification of FH in the UK and one of the highest rates of diagnosed cases in the world.”<\/p>\n
The trust said that once people are diagnosed and established on long-term treatment with standard cholesterol-lowering medications, they do not generally need further intervention beyond “periodic cholesterol checks”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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