What musician wish he knew before heart attack on Fraser Coast

After suffering a heart attack in Hervey Bay, there’s one thing bass guitar player Grant Byrne wishes he’d been more aware of beforehand.

After suffering a heart attack in Hervey Bay a few years ago, there’s one thing Bass Guitar player Grant Byrne wishes he was more aware of beforehand.

One day in 2018, Grant Byrne, a Sunshine Coast local who had travelled up to Hervey Bay to perform alongside his band, held a bass guitar across his chest.

Little did he know, that just hours following his gig at the Boat Club, a completely different feeling to those of his strings, would pound his chest.

He took a swim in preparation for his second night of performing, when the cause of an “odd feeling” had him curious but not enough to let anyone know.

Later in his hotel room however, jamming to some tunes, he suddenly felt sick.

He decided it was best to lay down on the bed. His head hit the pillow and a sharp, crushing pain hit his chest.

“It felt like an elephant was sitting on me … I knew straight away it was a heart attack,” Grant said.

The pain was unbearable.

Grant Byrne (R) on stage with a mate, doing what he loves.

As his partner desperately phoned the ambulance for help, Grant lay still, trying to focus on his breathing.

He was soon in a helicopter, being rushed to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

“I was scared,” he said.

Grant’s recovery, although difficult, was made a little easier by something he wish he’d focused on more throughout his life, learnt through his rehabilitation journey.

“The cardiac rehabilitation was a blend of a four-week program, one part was based on the importance of medication and taking it … And the need to exercise, more structured type exercise,” Grant said.

But, a specific part of cardiac rehabilitation Grant found most helpful, where he was taught how to “tap into the sympathetic nervous system”, which directs the body‘s involuntary responses to dangerous or stressful situations.

“Just staying calm … if I have any sort of different feeling in the chest or anywhere near what's going on, I think ‘am I having a heart attack?’, it’s very easy to get into a panic,” Grant said.

“I started to do a lot more meditation, it helped me keep my emotions in-check and helped me not be freaked out by everything.

“I was living pretty healthy (before my heart attack), but I probably would have would have stayed a little more healthy, if possible … Health, diet, fitness, meditation and yoga.”