Fred McCann has shared how a bathtub saved his life when he suffered a heart attack in the shower, with the now 78-year-old recalling the horror medical incident
A man who had a heart attack in the shower has credited his bathtub for saving his life.
Fred McCann, 78, shared he was getting ready for work when he suffered a heart attack while showering. Fred, from Southport, has since celebrated two birthdays to mark the attack, which could have been fatal had it not been for how he managed to kickstart his own heart.
When he collapsed in the shower, Fred fell at the “perfect angle,” which meant as his chest hit the bath, his heart was “kickstarted,” thus saving his life. Fred now celebrates a “re-birthday” on December 17, the date of his near-death experience.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, he said: “32 years ago I had a heart attack, which stopped my heart. As I went down, I struck the bath in just the right place to kickstart it again. The consultant told me that [if I had landed on the bath] a bit higher or lower it wouldn’t have worked. So, if the King can have two birthdays, it seems only right that I should.
“In the late 80s, I was advised that I had a hiatus hernia, which had the same symptoms as a heart attack. Around October 1992, I started getting these pains across my chest and rang the doctors. I was told it was my hernia acting up, I was given meds to take and I carried on working as normal.”
Fred, who retired from his job at Sefton Council 17 years ago, had been feeling “terrible” while at work just five weeks before his heart attack and found himself in A&E. He added: “A couple of hours later [after being sent home] I had a doctor from the practice ring me and told me my blood count was so low, it was dangerous and had iron tablets sent out for me to start taking.
“They also told me I wasn’t fit to work. For four weeks, I suffered with chest pains then one day I returned home just after midnight, having been on duty [at work] seventeen hours. The pains had gotten worse and I hardly slept that night.
“Then the next morning Margaret had gone off to work and I went into the bathroom to get ready for work. Next thing I know is I’m coming round on the bathroom floor, I crawled to the phone and dialled 999, then woke our son up, who was on a late turn.
“The ambulance arrived and I was taken to A&E where I was told I’d had a heart attack. I was later told all those pains I’d had for weeks had been mini ones. The consultant, having seen the massive bruise on my chest where I’d struck the bath, told me that if I’d hit the bath any higher or lower, the thump to the chest wouldn’t have worked.”
