Swift care was so crucial for me

Patrick Gloyens had swift specialist care

Research shows that if a heart attack victim is taken directly to a specialist centre they have a greater chance of surviving.

One man speaks about his experience after developing problems aboard a plane.

Patrick Gloyens, 54, a solicitor from Guildford, had a heart attack in April.

He was taken directly to Harefield Hospital, a specialist heart attack centre, where he received an emergency primary angioplasty, which he says saved his life.

Mr Gloyens was boarding a plane to Miami at Heathrow, having had to run from the security checks to make it, when he started to feel unwell, and he decided to get off the plane before it took off.

He said: "I started to feel unwell so I decided to get off which was quite a good decision - one of my better decisions."

He said he had a burning sensation in his chest and throat and a paramedic from the airport was called, who asked if he suffered from acid reflux.

"I said no, it's not acid reflux, I can tell you that for nothing," he said.

So it saved my life, there's no doubt Patrick Gloyens 'Specialist care cuts deaths'

Mr Gloyens was rushed to Harefield, and arrived there at around 10:30am in the morning, when he immediately received the angioplasty.

This is a procedure used to clear blockages in the heart's arteries.

A small balloon at the tip of a catheter tube is inserted via an artery in the groin or arm and guided to the blocked heart artery.

It is then inflated and removed, leaving in place a 'stent' - a rigid support which squashes the fatty deposit blocking the artery, allowing blood to flow more easily

Mr Gloyens said: "The time from the ambulance doors opening to the time they finished the whole thing was under 20 minutes which is just flabbergasting really - it's astonishingly quick.

"The great thing about it is that as a result of being treated so quickly there seems to be very little damage, if any damage, to my heart."

Heart attack

He said: "Heathrow is one of the best places in the world to have a heart attack actually because it's full of doctors and medics who are used so it was all very quick.

"And you're close to Harefield - there wasn't much traffic on the motorway so we whizzed round there quickly."

Mr Gloyens said since the heart attack he had been taking things easy, and is taking cardiac rehabilitation classes.

Had he been taken to another hospital first and then had to be referred to Harefield time would have been lost, during which his heart may have been damaged or he could have died.

"So it saved my life, there's no doubt," he said.