Day pushes for heart checks

AFTER losing her soulmate to a heart attack last year, a former Berwick resident has helped launch Love Your Heart Day this week to raise awareness about heart disease.
Sue Cummings had to spend her first Valentine’s Day without the love of her life, Karl Giersch, who passed away suddenly from a heart attach in March last year at the age of 43.
Instead of spending Valentine’s Day alone, Ms Cummings teamed up with Melbourne’s MonashHeart, Victoria’s premier soccer club Melbourne Heart, and Melbourne band The Elliotts to launch Love Your Heart Day at Clayton Monash Medical Centre.
The aim is to raise awareness of heart disease and urge Victorians to act quickly when dealing with chest pain.
Ms Cummings said she wanted to share her sad story on Valentine’s Day to encourage people with any kind of chest pain to seek help immediately.
“On the morning of Karl’s fatal heart attack, I felt that something was terribly wrong,” Ms Cummings said.
“Unable to reach him via the phone, I tried frantically to contact his work. A colleague finally located him collapsed in the bathroom. Ambulance officers were unable to revive Karl after a massive coronary event. My beautiful man, soul mate and Valentine was gone.
“If Karl sought appropriate help, he might have been celebrating another Valentine’s Day with me today.”
It was later discovered that two of Mr Giersch’s coronary arteries had severe blockages and that he had also experienced two ‘silent’ heart attacks three months prior to the fatal one.
Each year, MonashHeart treats more acute heart attack patients than anywhere else in Victoria – 350 last year.
MonashHeart director Professor Ian Meredith urged to the community to think about not only giving one’s partner chocolate and flowers, but giving a “healthy heart.”
During the day, MonashHeart sold cards, pins and dark chocolate hearts in a bid to raise money for two new ECG machines, vital in diagnosing heart attacks.