By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT

 

A REGULAR morning in 2021 turned into a lifechanging, traumatic event for Morwell man Michael Soban.

After suffering a heart attack at the age of 39, he recently reunited with the local paramedic who saved his life on that fateful day.

Experiencing chest pain for well over 24 hours, and after a restless night, Mr Soban awoke and jumped into the shower only for it to get significantly worse.

“I thought ‘ah yeah, a shower will make things good’ and it just got 100 times worse,” he told the Express.

“That’s when I called the ambulance up, called triple zero and they came (and) took me away.

“I thought at one point, because the pain had gotten pretty bad, I thought I was going to die.”

Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) paramedic Eleisha Albert recognised the severity of Mr Soban’s case from the moment she arrived.

“He met us at the door and he was quite sweaty,” Ms Albert said.

“I thought it was from the shower, but it turned out it was from a heart attack.

“We had put the cardiac monitor onto him and when the electrocardiogram was printed out, I remember looking at it in disbelief.

“He was so young to be having a heart attack.”

Suffering from a ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), which is a major heart attack often caused by a completely blocked major coronary artery, Mr Soban was at risk of developing chronic heart failure or going into cardiac arrest had he not received swift treatment.

What was also crucial in saving Mr Soban’s life was a medicine called Tenecteplase, which is only carried by paramedics positioned more than 90 minutes from the nearest hospital with specialist cardiac facilities.

Rural areas such as the Latrobe Valley typically don’t have these.

“Tenecteplase is a clot-busting drug, meaning it has the ability to dissolve blood clots in your arteries,” Ms Albert said.

Spending five days at the Monash Medical Centre in Clayton, Mr Soban admitted the recovery was slow and is still progressing.

“I wasn’t able to go to work for maybe 10 months, wasn’t allowed to drive for six months,” he said.

However, he’s now back on track more than four years later, and enjoying his mountain bike riding across the land once again.

The affection had for the paramedics who arrived to his rescue was evident, with Mr Soban bringing gifts for his saviours with a happy smile when meeting at the recently opened Morwell Ambulance Victoria super branch.

“They’ve forever got a place in my heart,” he said.

“I probably would have died if it wasn’t for them.

“I wanted to say thank you and let them know that I’m continuing on.”

Ms Albert wished to remind the community to take these signs seriously.

“I’d recommend that people have regular check-ups with their GP to be screened for high blood pressure and high cholesterol and any high risk factors for cardiac disease, especially if they have a family history of cardiac disease,” she said.

“Listen to your body, and if you do ever have chest pains, regardless of how old they are, to treat it seriously and call triple zero.”

Mr Soban, who was caring for his brother and sick mother at the time, said that he probably didn’t listen to those signs.

“Their health was the upmost importance while I was caring for them but I probably ignored myself,” he said.

“I hadn’t seen a doctor for maybe a decade.”

The risk of heart attacks can be reduced by lifestyle changes or medication.

You can make an appointment with a GP to identify any risk factors and make a plan to manage them.