Gerry Fitzgerald

While I was in the hospital, I stood up to move.

And the last thing I remember was everything went grey, I was lying on the floor and my clothes were being cut off and I knew what was happening at that stage.

And after that, I have very little memory of what happened to me until I got to University Hospital Cork where I was treated.

What was happening to me was I had a 98% blockage of the right coronary artery.

So that means that myocardium, which is the muscle that contracts to support your heart, wasn't working effectively.

So they put a stent into my heart to open up that area and allow the blood to flow freely through it.

I was treated there and then I spent a week in hospital.

Absolutely fine.

It's a whole new lease of life having a stent in.

It makes such a difference to people who have blockages within their arteries that if you get a stent in, it opens up the artery and allows the blood to flow properly.

I'm not back to power washing the house.

Not at the moment.

I've gotten a lot more exercise than I would have had before.

And that's

Basically because my wife forces me to take me out and do some exercise.

I've been monitored very frequently, yeah.

Absolutely been monitored.

And there's a whole series of medication that I need to take then for the rest of the year.

Absolutely.

So the message, like we're in Carrick and Shure, we're involved with a charity called Critical Emergency Medical Response Association.