Jo’s story about Paul

It began on a Wednesday morning at around 8:30. My husband, Paul, came downstairs while working from home and told me he had experienced a strange pain in his back. When I asked him to describe it, he said it was a ripping pain between his shoulder blades.

At first, neither of us realised how serious it might be. Paul had suffered from back problems for many years, so we assumed it could be another bad episode. He made a cup of coffee, had something to eat, and went back upstairs to work.

As the day went on, the pain became worse. I gave him a hot water bottle and some paracetamol. He continued working but later declined an invitation to take the dog for a walk because he did not feel up to it.
When I returned from the walk, I found Paul lying on the bed with sweat pouring off him. I knew he looked unwell, but I still did not think it was serious enough to call an ambulance. I wondered whether it could be a kidney infection, so I contacted the doctor’s surgery. They asked us to bring him in.

Paul struggled to get to the car and was in severe pain, particularly in his back and shoulders. At the surgery, he could barely sit down and paced around the room while waiting. He was sweating so heavily that it was dripping from his forehead. The doctor gave us blood forms and sample bottles for the hospital and prescribed painkillers.

We were almost home when Paul began to feel sick. As I pulled into the drive, he became much worse and passed out. I called 999 and asked a friend to come and help me.

Paul briefly regained consciousness and managed to get into the house, but then collapsed again. My friend and I followed the emergency call-handler’s instructions and eventually managed to get him onto his back. He was sweating so heavily that we had already used several towels to mop the floor. When we turned him over, he was completely blue.

A first responder arrived, followed by the ambulance crew. What happened next showed me how misleading the initial observations could be. Paul’s blood pressure appeared to be normal, his oxygen saturation was in the nineties, and his heart initially appeared normal on the ECG. Although some of Paul’s initial observations did not immediately point to a clear diagnosis, another paramedic recognised that the symptoms could indicate an aortic dissection, a clot, or a blockage.

Paul was taken to Noble’s Hospital, where the team worked incredibly hard to stabilise him. Liverpool was contacted because he needed specialist treatment, and he was transferred by air ambulance that night.
He underwent emergency surgery in Liverpool for around 15 hours. He was placed in an induced coma and needed a ventilator, dialysis, and extensive life support. When my son and I saw him, he was connected to so many machines that it was difficult to take in. He later suffered a heart attack and had to return to theatre for several more hours.

Over the following days, Paul’s condition continued to deteriorate. Doctors eventually told me that his brain had swollen severely and that he was brain-dead. Although I had feared the worst from the moment I saw him in intensive care, hearing the news was devastating.

Paul’s aortic dissection was not found to be hereditary. Doctors believed that undiagnosed high blood pressure and high cholesterol may have contributed, although we will never know the exact cause. Our sons were advised to have scans to check their aortas.

“The main message I want to share is this: if you have any form of tearing or ripping pain between your shoulder blades that takes your breath away, don’t just take a paracetamol and make a coffee. Ring 999 and say, ‘I think I’ve had a dissection.’”

I did not realise that Paul’s pain could be connected to his heart because he was still making coffee, working, and talking to me. If I had known then what I know now, I would have called for an ambulance when he first described the pain.

“It might be a false alarm, but on the other hand, you might have saved someone’s life.”

I hope that sharing Paul’s story will encourage people to take sudden, severe pain seriously and seek urgent medical help.