Barts and The London Heart Attack Centre | Patient stories | Graham’s story
Graham’s story
Graham Barnet had a heart attack while running the 2006 London marathon. He was rushed to Barts and The London Heart Attack Centre – Britain’s biggest – for an emergency angioplasty, an advanced life-saving procedure.
At the new centre, Graham, a veteran of 16 marathons, underwent a minimally invasive procedure called an angioplasty to clear the blockage and stop the heart attack.
Graham’s case is one of the latest examples of how angioplasties are helping to modernise heart attack treatment. Our research shows that patients have nearly a 10% better survival rate with an angioplasty than those who receive traditional clot-busting drugs, which try to dissolve the clot. It also shows that on average patients spend far less time in hospital following an angioplasty.
Graham, a postman from Barnet, north London, says: “The treatment at the heart attack centre was great. I always had the impression that once you suffered a heart attack you just kept going downhill but that isn’t the case with me. I have already returned to work part time and have plans to do more marathons in the future.”
“I have already returned to work part time and have plans to do more marathons.”
Since his heart attack, Graham has run the 2007 London marathon and achieved a better time than some of his doctors!
To view Graham’s story covered by the BBC, please click here.
