Daryl Hatton's
Growing Pains

Today I’ve been asking myself (gently – this isn’t a beating myself up session) how I got here i.e. what caused my heart attack? I thought I’d look through all the common risk factors to see how they apply. I just finished reading the Vancouver Coastal Health Cardiac Surgery Patient Guide and the Heart & Stroke Foundation Cardiac Care Guide suggestions for having a “healthy heart” diet. I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad that I’ve been doing most of these things for quite a while – no easy fix hidden in here. I would be considered a good …

Some good news and some bad news…Good news: They successfully did the angio, mapped out the areas that are constricted and think they may even be able to repair some of the damage from the heart attack with something they want to try. Bad news: The something they want to try is open heart bypass surgery. I go in sometime within a week. Why: I have a genetic (hereditary) heart defect where the artery group that feeds the front of my heart is, well, pretty clogged. The artery that feeds the back of my heart is in perfect shape indicating …

On July 11th, 2014 at 6:25 PM Daryl Hatton, your experienced Action News Reporter, walked into the Emergency Department at Vancouver General Hospital to begin an in-depth first-hand look at emergency cardiac care in this city. The next eight articles will describe the personal side of this journey. They were originally designed as stand alone articles but have been combined into this special report with minimal editing. Here are the relevant posts: Heart Ache When you rule out… Live here at ICU First results are in By the numbers Learned overnight More learned overnight Learned over three weeks Please comment and …