Lakeside patient thanks medical staff for saving his life

Mr Crane visited the Cottingham Road practice for unrelated healthcare issues, when he mentioned a ‘scratchy’ feeling in his chest which he put down to tiredness after a trip to Holland. Practice nurse Alice Beattie was concerned and insisted that he should be seen by a doctor despite Mr Crane's assertions that all was well! Dr Ummad Raja ran all the usual tests without anything showing up. However, he insisted that Mr Crane be referred to Kettering General Hospital where the heart attack was discovered, and a stent put in to deal with a blockage. A follow up at the hospital is planned for further stents to be fitted.

Mr Crane is hugely grateful to the Lakeside staff for acting so decisively as well as the hospital’s cardiology team. He said: ‘Had it not been for Alice prodding and probing and insisting I see the doctor I would never have known about it and might have had a further heart attack, and who knows what the outcome may have been? Like every father, my ambition is to walk my daughter down the aisle on her wedding day, and I would have been gutted had I fell off my perch before I had the chance to do that!

‘Dr Raja had spent a fair bit of time in medicine and he didn’t like what he was hearing given my medical history and the fact that it didn’t sound quite right. He did an ECG but that showed nothing of any concern. He said “I am not seeing anything yet, but I just know that you have got to go to A&E to get a blood test immediately.”

‘A&E were brilliant, and I was being monitored within five minutes. Tests showed that I had had a heart attack a day or two previously. I had an angiogram and stent fitted and they told me that I was lucky to have dodged a bullet and it was so good that it was spotted at Lakeside. I genuinely believe that if it hadn’t been picked up then I would have had a further, perhaps fatal, heart attack so I am immensely grateful for the help I had. It certainly shows that not all heart attacks are the same. The only symptom I had was tiredness and a feeling of unease, as though I had twisted a muscle in my chest. There were no crushing chest pains, nothing down my arms or jaw.

‘There aren’t enough words to express my gratitude. I went to the surgery with a thank you card, flowers and chocolates the day I came out of hospital. Lakeside has done so much for me over the 58 years that I have been with the practice, and I wanted to make sure that the people involved know how grateful my family and I are.’

Afterwards Alice said: ‘I feel that I barely played a part but obviously every step helps in that journey to get the patient the treatment they need and I am so glad that it all turned out well. Afterwards Mr Crane's daughter contacted me through social media to say thanks!’

Dr Raja said: ‘Each patient I see is a priority and you have to weigh up their condition, history and symptoms. Experience also comes into it, which is why I wanted Mr Crane to have further investigations. Medicine is a vocation for us all and so any difference that you make is a massive positive.’

Published: Sep 25, 2023