I met Law about three months ago in the ex-JPS Chinese New year gathering. I could still remember vividly I congratulated him looking so radiant, relax and kind. In fact Lee Hin Lee told me that Law had made appointment to see her on the afternoon of 27 april not knowing that Law had just passed away the day before. A few friends called to enquire how Law felt before he suffered the heart attack. Law might be unfortunate to belong to the group of heart patients, about 20%, who did not have any warning sign and symptom of forth coming heart attack. However my personal experience and observations are that we tend to use the excuse "old age" or 'age is catching up" to dismiss the tell tale sign of heart problem such as getting tired easily like dozing off in the meeting , getting sleepy when driving long distance which never happen before in younger days. Since I had my engioplasty done I seldom doze off in the meeting and can drive non stop from KL to Penang without having to stop halfway to take a nap. Another tell tale sign of forth coming heart problem is the feeling of heart burn and or feeling of bloating after meal especially after dinner , which we normally blame it to indigestion and it is correct but not knowing that the indigestion is caused by short of blood supply to the stomach due to blockage of heart vessel. A few months before the episode of heart problem, I felt slight heart pain after having a lap (abut 400m) of brisk walking and i just brushed it off as stamina problem. Two weeks before the episode, I suddenly felt breathless after walking down from three story building and continue to walk just about 20m or so, by then I suspected my heart had problem. I was watchful with my heart responses since then until that fateful night which I mentioned in my earlier episode.
About 5 years ago, one day when i went into the office of Raj, a colleague in the Ministry of agriculture, I saw him sweating profusely in the air-conditioned room, I advised him to drop everything and go to seek a cardiologist advice. He took my suggestion and the doctor diagnosed him having vessel blockage in the heart and he had since successfully done a by-pass.
My classmate Kian Yong wanted me to share my experience when we were attending a world wide assembly of Chung Ling old boys in melbourne in 2007. A few months after coming back from Australia I received a call from him that he had just an engioplasty and he was appreciative of the tips I gave him.
By the way the late Mr Law was a vegetarian for about 20 years and he had been doing regular brisk walking three times per week. Many could not believe that he had died of heart attack. Of course I cannot offer an explanation to this as we know that there are various causes of heart problem. But what i want to say here is we should always be listening to our body and do not hesitate to consult doctor when we feel some thing is not right to our body. Of course we should also be careful not to be a hypochondriac and scared ourselves to sickness.
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