A continuing burning ache in my chest woke me from a deep sleep round 5 a.m. I received up and walked to the toilet, tripping over my suitcase and wakening my sleeping spouse. Standing within the toilet I hoped the ache would possibly reduce but it surely stubbornly remained.
I had had some chest ache and was breathless strolling again from the restaurant the night earlier than. Biarritz has a steep incline up from its roaring surf seashores however the ache had eased once I reached flatter floor and it disappeared, because it usually did, once I stopped strolling. The Friday earlier than I had an analogous episode strolling residence from work so now, within the darkness and cloying air of a September morning, I knew I used to be in hassle.
Foolishly trying to not alarm my spouse, I instructed her I wanted to see a health care provider, pulled on shorts and a T-shirt and walked downstairs to reception. It was a small three-star resort and I fearful nobody could be on responsibility. Fortunately Chloe who has registered our arrival the day earlier than and spoke good English was nonetheless there. I calmly instructed her I had chest ache and suspected a coronary heart assault so she rapidly telephoned an emergency quantity and translated my acute signs. Inside twenty minutes an ambulance was exterior the resort, I used to be positioned on a stretcher, blood stress and oxygen saturation measured and my worsening signs assessed utilizing Chloe as translator. I used to be pushed off in darkness to the A&E on the predominant regional hospital, fifteen minutes away within the city of Bayonne. Passport, European Well being Care card and Covid-19 vaccination standing had been recorded, a PCR Covid-19 take a look at and bloods had been taken and I used to be stretchered into a non-public room to await a health care provider who when he arrived insisted, in damaged English, I shouldn’t try to face up. By now my confused anxious spouse, refused a journey within the ambulance, had arrived by taxi and was allowed to hitch me. The language barrier was tough however we managed and nervously we mentioned between us what had simply occurred and what is perhaps about to occur. Our fast and long-term future was uncharacteristically unsure.
Inside half an hour blood exams had been again and a heart-attack confirmed so with a unfavourable Covid-19 PCR take a look at it was agreed I needs to be admitted. I used to be given a bolus dose of anti-platelet drugs to problem clotting and by 11 a.m. I used to be in a non-public ICU mattress, my chest and proper arm wired as much as an ECG/BP/oxygen saturation machine and a saline drip inserted into my left arm. At 2.00 p.m. all went quiet, my spouse was requested to depart and I used to be prepped for theatre and instructed once more I shouldn’t try to face up.
By late afternoon I had a five-year outdated stent changed however then the issues began. Clots from this failed stent had moved additional down the artery and I spent the subsequent 5 days in ICU the place they pumped a sequence of clot-buster medication into my left arm with the purpose of blasting these imposters out. Their crafty plan was unsuccessful so on Sunday I had two further stents inserted and allowed to lastly arise and, on the Monday, depart hospital with a powerful medical file, in French, and simply in time to catch my Ryanair flight again to Dublin early Tuesday morning.
Leaving hospital I discovered I needed to pay. On admission to A&E I had a European Well being Card (EHC1 now a World Well being Card) and I had journey insurance coverage. However my EHC1 was outdated (expired 2013) and I used to be instructed that my insurance coverage was contingent on a sound EHC1 one thing I didn’t know. A brand new EHC1 was registered on-line once I was in ICU and on departure I needed to pay solely €144.
I’ve had higher holidays and my spouse had holidays with far more enjoyable, however on reflection, my expertise of the French healthcare system was reassuringly fantastic. I might almost certainly have acquired this stage of care had the occasion occurred within the UK maybe with out the personal ICU mattress.
Biarritz was not our deliberate vacation spot. We had organized to stroll for per week in northern Spain however cancelled because of Covid-19 and as a substitute used the flights for a Biarritz seashore vacation. Had this medical occasion occurred on Camino, someplace in rural northern Spain, I don’t need to speculate what choices might need been out there however maybe that’s being unfair to the Spanish health-care system.
Returning to Belfast I tried to contact my GP as I used to be instructed by my French heart specialist I need to converse to an area heart specialist inside 4 weeks. I had big problem making contact by telephone and eventually resorted to writing a letter which prompted an pressing GP appointment however a month later I used to be nonetheless ready to see a heart specialist; the ready checklist again then was ten weeks. So I went privately to see my NHS heart specialist who put again onto his NHS checklist and since then I’ve had one phone evaluation. On the constructive aspect I’ve been assigned a nurse practitioner who has been greater than useful and reassuring however I do fear my residual angina is greater than “simply to be anticipated”.
Within the UK the NHS stays an establishment past reproach. Critics danger being accused of heresy so we complain not directly about lack of funding or poor administration. We by no means it appears marvel why, if our beloved NHS is such an amazing concept, no different nation has replicated it or has plans to take action anytime quickly. After I subsequent really feel the squeeze on my coronary arteries I would contemplate ringing Ryanair fairly than 999. Vive La France!
I’m a pharmacist in Belfast.
