John's Story
Coronary Heart Disease is one of the biggest killers in the country. Our aim is to improve the range and quality of services available locally.
John is a 53-year old lorry driver. He lives alone. Being on the road the majority of the time he has done virtually no exercise for a number of years. John is heavily overweight and he binge drinks approx. 20 pints of strong lager at the weekend.
He has reluctantly attended a men's health evening at his local surgery, because he has been experiencing 'indigestion' type pains. John's GP suspected that these pains were coming from his heart after changes on his ECG (electrical monitoring of the heart) performed in the surgery and made an immediate referral to the Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic at Cheltenham General Hospital.
He has an angiogram (heart test) and is diagnosed with angina. This means he needs to have an angioplasty (heart procedure) at Cheltenham General Hospital. He attends the 7-week cardiac rehabilitation programme, also at the hospital, where he improves his fitness levels. He is given advice on healthy eating and physical activity. Following the successful completion of an exercise ECG at his GP surgery, John regains his HGV license and returns to work. John receives regular check ups by Coronary Heart Disease nurses at his surgery.
