What happened when I had a heart attack

Andrew Brown recently suffered a heart attack. These are the notes he made in the cardiac high dependency unit (HDU) at Papworth hospital on 30 May, transcribed after he got home.

Brought here from Addenbrooke's hospital after I started a heart attack in the audiology clinic. I had cycled there in a hurry over Windmill Hill, and as I continued felt, not chest pain, but a sense that my back was all tense and wrong. What I now think of as a shiny soreness on the inside of my spine. My breastbone was also extremely tender on the outside. It needed rubbing and pushing to relieve the tension. I wanted to straighten my back and breathe more deeply. My spine felt hunched up between the shoulder blades. Breathing was raspy and metallic. My jaws ached, top and bottom, at the front.Read on here…
 

Andrew Brown works for the Guardian these days, writing long profiles for their Saturday review section and a weekly web column, Worm's Eye View, for guardian.co.uk, as well as leaders, book reviews, features and short cuts. He also writes and presents Analysis programs for BBC Radio 4. In the time left over he writes pop science books, short stories, and other things that catch his imagination.