Max Towns is fitter now than he was 10 years ago.
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The 72-year-old Launceston man counts himself extremely lucky.
“I’m here because of two men and their teams - Dr Geoffrey Evans and Mr Michael O’Keefe,” he said.
Dr Evans was Mr Towns’ cardiologist, and Mr O’Keefe was his surgeon, who performed a myomectomy and a mitral valve repair.
“I’m very, very lucky and it’s because of those two men,” Mr Towns said.
Dr Evans has been Mr Towns’ cardiologist for about seven years.
In September 2016, he recommended Mr Towns lose some weight.
“He said, ‘I’d like you to lose five kilos and you’d be a good candidate for an open heart’, because my heart was deteriorating.
“I had what you call hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is a thickening of the heart walls.
“So I lost the weight and went back to him about six months later.”
Around Anzac Day last year, Mr Towns was sent to the Valley Private Hospital, where an electrophysiologist performed an atrial flutter ablation on him.
“I came home and while I was waiting [for another procedure], I went up to bed one night – I went to the toilet and I collapsed, I couldn’t move.
“My wife Joy said to me, ‘can you get up’, and I said, ‘no, I can’t’.
“I just couldn’t move, so she got an ambulance and I ended up in the Launceston General Hospital.
“They said I’d had a heart attack and then after a while, they said, no I don’t think it was a heart attack.”
Dr Evans recommended Mr Towns go to Melbourne for surgery.
“Geoff actually took me over on a commercial flight on a Saturday morning,” Mr Towns said.
“He picked me up in a taxi, wheeled me in a wheelchair, took me to the airport, wheeled me to the plane, lifted me up into the plane, sat with me and had a defibrillator in case things went wrong.”
They arrived safely at the Melbourne Private Hospital on the Saturday and Mr Towns was due to have surgery on the Monday or Tuesday. However, he got up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and collapsed again.
“He got a black eye and a clot behind the eye, and they won’t operate when there’s a clot,” Joy Towns said.
“That was May 28 and he didn’t have surgery until June 13.”
When he was operated on, it was a 10-hour surgery, followed by 12 days in the intensive care unit.
“The last day I saw Mr Michael O’Keefe, he said to me, ‘it was touch and go for the first 24 to 48 hours, but we’re here’.
“And I am here.”
Mr Towns arrived back in Tasmania on July 5 and went to St Vincent’s Hospital for two days.
“I was home for about eight weeks and then did rehab down at the NICS building. Then, towards the end, I had to see Geoff and he said, ‘we’re starting up a rehab up here’.
“So I come here every Wednesday for an hour with Jemma and Josh and do an hour’s exercise.”
Josh Burk and Jemma Preece are exercise physiologists at Charles Clinic Healthy Living.
The rehabilitation centre, which was established last year, offers pre and post cardiac event or procedure assessments, and supervised individualised exercise programs and educational sessions.
“When I came out of hospital, I thought I was going to end up in a wheelchair, but with the rehabilitation and the exercise, I reckon I’m fitter now than I was 10 years ago,” Mr Towns said.
“It feels terrific. I get a bit emotional.
“I’m here because of two men and their teams - Dr Geoffrey Evans and Mr Michael O’Keefe.
“Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”
Mr Towns was a builder by trade and still loves to build things.
“I go fishing and exercise - anything I can do to keep going.
“I like my fishing and I also like pottering in the shed.
“I walk now. I used to hate walking unless I was going somewhere, but now I like walking just to keep myself fit.
“I’m very grateful.”
