A man who is lucky to be alive, has
told of how he nearly died after
suffering up to six heart attacks in
just one day.
A dad has told how he cheated death
after suffering six heart attacks in
one day and “dying” for a whole
minute.
Tony Smith, now 33, said his wife
kissed him goodbye fearing he
wouldn’t come out of surgery alive
after he ‘died’ during his fourth heart
attack at the age of just 32.
The father-of-two said he suffered his
first cardiac arrest when he woke up
at 4am to feed his 18-month-old son
Bailey.
Tony collapsed into his kitchen
cooker and was rushed to hospital –
where his wife Kay had to “wait to
find out if he got a pacemaker or
would be taken to the coroners”.
But two months after the scare, the
cause for Tony’s series of heart
attacks still remains a mystery.
Speaking about the incident, Tony, of
Hull, East Yorks., said: “I can
remember feeling sick and then I can
remember waking up surrounded by
paramedics and my neighbours and
they were saying they thought I had a
heart attack.
“I had all the checks before going into
the ambulance to Hull Royal where I
had another heart attack.
“I think it was during the fourth heart
attack, at Hull Royal, that I died. I
was gone for about a minute.”
Tony collapsed into his kitchen
cooker after waking up at 4am to
feed his son
After Tony was rushed to hospital in
Hull and underwent emergency
surgery, he flat-lined twice while his
wife and two young kids sat waiting
outside the theatre.
He said doctors believe the cardiac
arrest was caused by an underlying
heart condition but are still looking
into the causes.
Luckily, the farmer had lost 22lbs in
the months before the scare – as
doctors told him they would have
been unable to complete the life-
saving surgery as quickly had he
been his previous weight.
He said: “I obviously didn’t expect
anything like that to happen at 32.
“I didn’t know of any heart problems,
but my mum has a heart murmur and
the doctors now think I had
underlying heart condition which
caused it.
“My heart just shut down – I take one
day at a time now.
“Now I get to see my children grow
up, be with my wife. I can’t thank
them enough.”
Kay said she bid a tearful farewell to
her husband before he went into
surgery on May 26, fearing it might
be the last time she saw him alive.
She said: “There cannot be anything
worse than time spent having to say
goodbye to a family member, to your
loved one, and having your kids
asking, ‘where has daddy gone?’
“He’s a farmer so he has always been
very active. He’d just lost the weight
so you don’t think it would happen to
someone like that.
“His heart rate at one point went
down to 21 – we had to wait to find
out if he got a pacemaker or would be
taken to the coroners.”
Kay told how she said goodbye to her
husband, fearing he wouldn’t make it
Kay added: “The surgeon said that at
the weight Tony was he wouldn’t have
been able to do the operation as an
emergency and he could have died.
“We had amazing support at the CMU
and from the British Heart
Foundation.
“But it’s really tough. He was back at
work two weeks after it happened and
apart from an eight week GP check-
up, we only get follow-up help from
British Heart Foundation.”
The couple have set up a GoFundMe
page and are now trying to raise
money for Hull CMU at Castle Hill
Hospital and the British Heart
Foundation to help families affected
by heart attacks.
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