Warning Signs

Chris suddenly experienced stomach pains at an AFL Grand Final barbecue with his wife, Vicki, and mates this year, which he dismissed as indigestion.

But when he started sweating and turned a shade of grey about 10 minutes later Vicki and his best mate Antony flashed back to The Heart Foundation’s advert for the campaign, Will You Recognise Your Heart Attack?

“He was clammy and grey, straight away I thought, `oh God, I’ve seen that on TV’,” Vicki says.

The advert features a dead man looking back on his heart attack and determining when he could have saved his life by calling 000.
Vicki says it might have been a different story if she hadn’t seen that commercial.

“I don’t think I would have (called 000), only because he was 42. I wouldn’t have thought it,” she says.

“He thought it was indigestion, I would have thought it was too.”

Chris has changed his diet since his heart attack and exercises daily for 30 minutes.

He says everyone should learn the heart attack warning signs and call 000 at the first sign.

“(At the time) I thought, I can’t be having a heart attack, but at that point I wasn’t really with it.

“It’s not so much me understanding the signs, it’s actually the people around you.”