A heart's beat

A heart attack, or myocardial infarction, occurs when blood flow, carrying essential oxygen to a section of the heart muscle, is severely reduced or blocked, typically by a plaque-induced blood clot.

In Feb 2024, my mum suffered a heart attack. In fact, she probably suffered multiple of them. Initially, she thought it just a mild indigestion, and didn’t go to the hospital until it was too late. But it was too late. For two years, she was in a limbo. Fighting for a recovery that never came. Caring for her, we were unsure if she would dare to carry on. To fight. And in November 2025, she proclaimed in front of her medical council that she “ain’t kicking the bucket just yet”.

So on Christmas eve, 2025, she was urged in a hospital room to have an LVAD fitted – an artificial heart that she’d carry in her purse at all times.