Denise McCormack is grateful to be alive after surviving a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery.
Northland midwife Denise McCormack is grateful to be alive after first surviving a heart attack, then being faced with an ‘impossible decision’ because of the country’s health system.
McCormack, who has a family history of cardiac disease, is speaking out about her ordeal to raise awareness of heart disease, particularly in women, and to support the Heart Foundation’s Big Heart Appeal.
The 62-year-old is urging people to “self-advocate” and not to ignore warning signs as she did on the morning of November 2024 when she felt a strange pain in her teeth.
Instead of calling an ambulance, the former nurse took some aspirin and carried on with her day.
But knowing her mum and uncle had died from heart disease aged 65 and 47 respectively, McCormack thought she’d better get an electrocardiogram (ECG) done just in case.
Doctors told her she needed an angiogram as soon as possible, and when the results came through in January 2025, she was told she would need heart bypass surgery.
She was put on a long waiting list, and thinking it wasn’t that bad got on with her summer plans.
Several days later, when she was “not feeling right”, she phoned the cardiac nurse, who called an ambulance.
The doctor revealed she had suffered an NSTEMI, a common, serious heart attack caused by a partial blockage of a coronary artery, leading to reduced blood flow and heart muscle damage.
She then needed an urgent quadruple bypass and was told surgery on the public waiting list would take six weeks instead of the usual two weeks because the system was so stretched.
McCormack’s dilemma? Because she opted to go private, she couldn’t wait for surgery in hospital.
But because she lived in rural Waipu, the doctor didn’t want to send her home in case something went wrong.
McCormack said she had to keep herself alive for 10 “terrifying” days at home before the operation.
“If I went home and something happened to me, I didn’t have much chance.
“I knew if something happened there’s no way you’re going to get an ambulance ... I was either going to make it or I wasn’t.”
She survived those 10 days at home by self-medicating anti-coagulants to prevent blood clots and stop existing clots from growing bigger, injecting them straight into her stomach.
McCormack had the quadruple bypass on January 28, 2025.
“Even if you’ve got a slight hint you could have anything cardiac related, there’s no harm in getting checked,” she said.
“I went because of my family history and didn’t expect them to find anything. I thought I was wasting people’s time, but I wasn’t.
“I would have followed in the steps of my mum and uncle.”
McCormack said women often experienced different symptoms of a heart attack than men.
While men experience chest pain, and pain down the left arm, radiating into the jaw, women can feel extreme fatigue, nausea, indigestion and dizziness.
At the time of her cardiac arrest, McCormack didn’t have any pain in her arm or chest, or any strange sensations on her left side.
She just knew she didn’t feel right.
“The symptoms are different.
“Sometimes women will just get on and do things and dismiss what’s going on.
“I didn’t think anything was wrong before; it was all very quick.
“I’m grateful to be alive.”
Every 90 minutes, a family in New Zealand loses a loved one to heart disease.
The Big Heart Appeal on February 27 and 28, is the Heart Foundation’s biggest national fundraising campaign of the year.
It aims to support research that leads to improved treatments for heart disease and to help prevent premature loss.
Funds raised will also invest in overseas training for young cardiologists so they can bring home the skills to benefit New Zealanders.
Heart Foundation medical director, Dr Gerry Devlin, said heart disease was “the single biggest killer” in New Zealand and globally.
Heart attacks were also on the increase, with a New Zealander admitted to hospital with a heart attack every 45 minutes, Dr Devlin said.
Visit www.bigheartappeal.org.nz if you’d like to volunteer as a street collector, host a fundraiser, or donate.
Heart disease at a glance:
Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.