About the time
Ruby was reaching the top of
K2 I was having my first
heart attack.
I remember it well. I had woken up that day with chest pains, the doctor had given me a little blue-white nitro-glycerine spray for under my tongue. It was supposed to expand my heart vessels and so stop any chest pain. Today it wasn’t working. The pains kept coming back. More of them. Longer. More painful. Stings became stabs, and then a pressing weight on my chest. My left arm tingled, and as I blinked and flexed my hand in wonder i notice the pain was coming into my jaw and I decided there and then I should go to the hospital.
Google saved my life.
I used it to find my closest hospital - The Royal London - and then without further ado I picked up my helmet and key, and walked out the door. I remember feeling eerily calm the whole time, I even held the door for a female colleague as she was going out for an early lunch.
Outside grey clouds were gathering, and I could feel the air pressure drop, like just before a storm. My motorbike was parked just outside our offices. I swung my leg over and visualized the route. Near midday. Rush hour. London. It would take 15 mins for the ambulance to come to the offices. Another 15 to get back. 30 mins both ways before a doctor saw me. 10 mins on the bike. Assuming I didn’t die before then, it was a better bet all around.
I kicked away from the pavement; joining the traffic just as the heavens opened.