I was a patient at Phuket International Hospital in November 2006. I complained about something unusual feeling inside my heart. The doctor offer me to take EKG, which showed nothing. So he shook his head, and said"NOTHING". Now I think that my heart attack which happened January 23, 2006, could probably have been avoided, if more examinations, like stress test had been done. According to medicinet.com 60 to 70 % of clogged arteries will be discovered with a so-called stress test.
When I had my heart attack, I did not call the emergency number here in Norway, which is 113.
Instead I called for a taxi, and went to visit a family I know. I remember that I complained to the taxi driver about pain in my chest while he was driving. None of us got the idea of changing destination, and go to the hospital instead in Stavanger. I have been told by a Danish doctor that I had a blood clot.
I did not come to hospital until 4 days later, on a Friday in the same week. Then I came because of double lung inflammation. And I guess that the old heart attack was discovered on x-ray. I have got the feeling that the PIH doctor did not take my fear of heart trouble seriously enough. I contacted a Norwegian pastor, who helped me to get a ticket back to Norway through Norsk Luftambulanse NLA (Norwegian Air Ambulance) . I was a member of that organization then, as I am today also. I think that my condition would have been much better if the fear of a dangerous heart condition would have been taken more seriously, so that the doctor would have recommended me to take more test. The PIH boasts on their homepage that the competence has been increased also when it comes to preventing heart illness. I do not understand why the doctor could stop taking more tests after the EKG.I have contacted the editor of a Norwegian magazine called "Det nytter" which is a membership magazine for a Norwegian organization for victims of heart and lung diseases. I suggested that she could write more about early diagnosis of plaque in the arteries of the heart. I hope to start a debate about why not such a dangerous condition as mine is not given more attention in the form of testing, especially when my relatives on both paternal and mother side have died from age 45 up to around 60 years old from heart disease.
