Just over twenty years ago at the age of 41 years old, Vern Hiebert of Winkler suffered a heart attack while on a trucking trip with his wife.
Hiebert says it happened about an hour and a half from Dryden, Ontario. From there his wife, Tina took over driving to get them to where an ambulance could meet them and rush them to the hospital. When they got to the hospital, Hiebert says it just so happened there was only one doctor on staff that day and there were 7 heart attack patients at the hospital, himself being number 7.
The following day Hiebert was flown to Winnipeg where he underwent a triple by-pass surgery, which was only the beginning of many years of severe heart troubles.
Over the years Hiebert says he ended up having around 10 heart attacks, and the fact that it's typical for about fifty percent of people to survive a first heart attack, he considers himself very fortunate to have survived so many.
When this all began for Hiebert after his first heart attack in 1999, he says his life definitely took on a new look. "All the things you enjoy doing, and in my case, it was flying airplanes, which was one of my passions, and once you've had a heart attack you don't keep your pilots' license. I was active in golfing, curling, bowling, all the things that people do."
Hiebert says some people can go back to all of their activities and recovery time also varies for everyone as it depends on the severity of the damage. "I took about 4 or 5 months to actually get back to work the first time. And 6 years later it was all for not, there were approximately twenty different places where there were blockages in my heart after that, that's where they said they didn't know where to begin with this thing."
In 2016, when there no longer seemed to be options left to help Hiebert, his family doctor was able to set him up with specialists in Winnipeg where a transplant was looked at as an option.
There were many hoops to get through, but ultimately Hiebert qualified and on June 11th of 2017 he received a new heart. "I would like to throw in a plug for the transplant program. If you can, sign your donor card."
Since his heart transplant, Hiebert says, overall he is doing quite well but he does deal with side effects from the anti-rejection medication he is on. He says the medication lowers his immune system. "I do have some rejection perhaps, it's not officially diagnosed but that's what they think it is."
The heart Hiebert received also had a virus, which for most people is not a problem unless your immune system is compromised and then it can affect you very dramatically. "I ended up having several months of extreme pain because of that. But since then overall it's been bouncing back and forth, I've had trouble sleeping and things like that. It sounds like complaining, but trust me, it's not. This is 1,000 percent better than what I ever was prior to that. I'm just very happy with how things are going."
Hiebert encourages people to talk to each other about their concerns and any issues related to their heart.
"Anybody else that thinks they're in this situation or will have questions about what it feels like or what the issues are with heart attacks, people should talk about that and not hesitate."
Hiebert says if you think you're having issues, go to the doctor and find out and don't waste much time with it. "I can tell you too many stories where people did and shouldn't have."
Listen here for the full interview with Vern Hiebert.
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