Mark's aortic dissection patient story
Mark Smith an active 59-year-old had started to enjoy his retirement when he suffered an aortic dissection during a trail run. Mark tells us his story.
“On the morning of Saturday, the 10th of September 2022 I fancied running my monthly 22km trail run. I had retired nine months earlier and at 59 years old was feeling and getting pretty fit with more free time at my disposal. The run was glorious, late summer sun and a sensible temperature.
Ten kilometres in and, at the start of a gentle slope I felt I had a torn muscle in my left shoulder. Seconds later it had developed into the most painful thing I had ever experienced (I have broken a fair few bones before but this was far, far more painful) the pain was across my chest and back. I looked at my watch to find my pulse was steady and my fingertips were still pink, so I knew it wasn’t a heart attack. It hurt incredibly. I took my phone out to call my wife to find there was no signal whatsoever. I managed to walk around 800 meters to where I could get a signal to phone my wife and get an ambulance. I thought I had a kidney stone due to the immense pain and my heart seemingly being OK.
The ambulance arrived in about 40 minutes, they seemed to have no more idea than I did about the source of my pain and put me on gas and air and took my wife and I (without blue lights), to West Suffolk hospital. Arriving at A&E though things started to happen quickly, I was moved into resus quickly and given some proper pain relief. Sent down for a CT scan I started to hear the words aortic dissection mentioned around me. Finally, they told me that I had suffered an aortic dissection starting just above the heart and descending to the iliac bifurcation (where the aorta splits to supply the legs).
An ambulance was arranged, and more pain relief and I went off on a magic carpet ride, (morphine is funny stuff), under blue lights to Papworth, our regional and national centre around 30 minutes away. I was in West Suffolk A&E for around five and a half hours in total.
At Papworth, the ambulance crew pulled in and contacted the “Cath Lab” (where I believe heart attacks are treated) there was no reply and they tried again and eventually one of the crew went up to the lab. Meanwhile my surgery team came running out to check if I was in the ambulance that had by that they had seen arrive some five to ten minutes earlier, they were expecting me, having been notified by West Suffolk.
I was told in the lift to the operating theatre I was to have some major surgery and what my options were and what the risks were too, this bit was frankly terrifying. I opted to have a tissue aortic valve if one was needed (it was), accepted the not insignificant risks and signed the documents.
I was operated on for around eight hours, and the next thing I remember is being aware I was in ICU. I met Mr Da Silva who had completed the procedure and most of his team and bar a period of atrial fibrillation - sorted by a cardioversion, my recovery was swift. I was released the following Friday having spent six days in hospital care.
Mr Da Silva said I would be able to do everything I was doing prior to my dissection in time but he banned me from powerlifting, (not something on my to-do list). Despite my experience, my cycling is now back to normal with my running not far off. I have taken my time and been cautious so not to risk causing myself damage if I went too hard, as I was running when this all started. My local cardio-rehab team really made a difference too as well as the brilliant NHS Couch to 5k app that got me running properly again.
On the whole, the NHS were very good (Papworth were amazing) although, there are areas where greater knowledge of the condition would certainly have improved the time it took me to get to the people who could fix the issue, but I believe the very positive outcome would have been the similar.
The charity, Aortic Dissection Awareness UK&I have been very supportive and a source of very useful information during recovery.
Both my family and my wife in particular have been superb, providing an environment in which it was easy to get better and fully supporting my recovery whilst at the same time pushing me quite hard by their own activities to get back outside again and to be myself. I think I am there now, today is a good day.
