A Coast cyclist in training for a long-distance event has given his heartfelt thanks to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH) cardiac team.
The team helped him get back on the bike – and across the finish line – just months after surviving a heart attack.
Cyclist Brad Coats suffered the attack just two days before Christmas last year, during his first training session of the season in the Noosa hinterland.
“I just got a pain – I would say tightness – along the front of my chest. So, I thought I’d ride to the closest ambulance station, which I knew was just over the hill,” he says.
Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics assessed him and swiftly transported him to SCUH.
“I couldn’t believe it – my age, and that this would be happening,” he says. “It feels nothing like what everybody says it felt like.”
Cardiology clinical nurse consultant Lee-Anne Gladwin says Brad needed urgent intervention on arrival. “The interventional side of what was required was done very quickly and he actually recovered very quickly after that, and we were able to get him home in a timely manner as well, which was great for his family being Christmas,” Lee-Anne says.
As Brad gradually returned to exercise, he committed to completing Tour de Cure: a 450km cycling event from Mission Beach to Port Douglas. Remarkably, he did so about five months after his heart attack, despite significant interruptions to his training.
Recently, Brad returned to SCUH in far better health to thank the cardiac team.
He also presented his event jersey, now displayed in the cardiac unit to inspire other patients.
“People can use my story to show that, even in the darkest time of their lives, things can turn around and be better off,” Brad says. “People should be thanked for the effort and the time they spend with patients.”
For Lee-Anne, seeing Brad again was deeply rewarding “because we don’t always get to hear what happens to our patients when they leave hospital”.
“So, hearing such a positive story about what he’s been able to achieve since he’s been discharged has been amazing – a positive story from his perspective and definitely for us,” she says.
