Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield: ‘I almost died from a heart attack at 42’

When I was 42, I almost died. I was overweight, a heavy smoker and did little exercise. But I never saw a heart attack coming, Sunday Telegraph sports editor-at-large Phil Rothfield reveals.

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I almost died at 42.

It was touch and go as doctors and nurses in the Sutherland Hospital emergency ward saved my life in the early hours of May 30, 2001.

I was overweight, a heavy smoker and did little exercise.

But I never saw a heart attack coming.

Phil Rothfield.

I wouldn’t be writing this story if my wife hadn’t rung triple-0 that night 18 years ago.

I’d gone to bed as usual after another stressful day at work. The same stress many millions of Australians face every working day.

Tired, but feeling perfectly normal.

And then came a terrifying, near-death experience that would change my life forever.

Around midnight I woke with minor chest pain and a tingling feeling in my arms.

I told my wife I’d see a GP in the morning.

We had an argument and she insisted on calling an ambulance straight away.

Paramedics arrived, sat me on the couch and did an ECG. No sign of a heart attack but enough concern to take me to hospital.

By this stage I’m feeling okay. I could have lit up a cigarette walking down the driveway to the ambulance. I was expecting to return home after a quick check-up.

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Surely no-one has a heart attack at my age with good bloodlines from parents who lived into their 80s and 90s.

Yet as I was being wheeled on a stretcher into the emergency department I had the massive heart attack.

At least my timing was good. I was around nurses, doctors and oxygen.

If I’d had it at home I was gone. Absolutely no hope.

I had gone into cardiogenic shock, a condition where your heart can’t pump enough blood for your organs. Your lungs fill with water. You become breathless.

It is fatal unless treated immediately.

After being stabilised and treated with blood clot-dissolving drugs, I was transferred to Prince of Wales Hospital that night.

My wife followed in our car behind the ambulance.

You get these horrible thoughts. Who’s going to pay the mortgage? Who’s going to walk my daughter down the aisle? What will happen to the house?

The next morning I met Dr Mark Pitney, a leading cardiologist.

Phil Rothfield with his cardiologist Dr Mark Pitney. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

I was told I was 50/50 about surviving the night before.

I had two stents to open the blockages in my arteries and a temporary pump implanted that takes over the work of the heart.

But I survived.

Dr Pitney now urges all men to have a proper heart check when they reach 40.

“Some people look after themselves but still have heart attacks,” he said.

“They think, ‘I’m fit, I don’t smoke, how could I possibly have a heart attack? I go to the gym five days a week, I’m as skinny as a stick’.

“But they’ve never checked their cholesterol which is eight and they’ve ignored the fact their father had a heart attack in his 50s. Perfectly fit people are not free of risk.

“Not a week goes by that we don’t see a young man scratching his head and asking how did it happen to me?

“All 40-year-old men should see their GP and ask what risk they are of having a heart attack.”

I learnt the hard way. If it wasn’t for my wife’s phone call, the wonderful nurses, the paramedics and amazing doctors, I would have missed my daughter growing up and going to university.

I wouldn’t have a son, a beautiful family.

I wouldn’t have the best job on the planet as a sports writer.

I’ve made it to 60 now and I am so lucky.