Border Zipper Club offers awareness and connection after open heart surgery

He never smoked, he isn't overweight, he exercises daily and he drinks red wine only occasionally.

Still, the Wodonga entertainer is now recovering from a quadruple bypass open heart surgery after surviving a serious heart attack in January.

"I thought I was pretty fit leading up to my attack, which was probably a saving grace!" he said this week.

"I walk every morning, I eat well, I had lost a bit of weight, I have never smoked, I love a red wine but not too many; I also go to the doctor regularly.

"My dad lived until 94 and Mum was 92 when she passed so I didn't think my heart would be a problem; wrong!"

When Vincent came off his bicycle last September, breaking four ribs and injuring his right shoulder, it sparked a chain of events that might have masked heart attack warnings.

Late on Christmas Day he had pain in his right shoulder and just under his ribs.

His doctor told him to rest his shoulder but the pain persisted every three or four days and he began to get short of breath out walking.

He was to see his GP again on January 10 when he felt excruciating chest pain and called an ambulance.

"I went straight into hospital to be told 'you have had a heart attack and you are very lucky there is no damage'," Vincent recalled.

"Three arteries were almost blocked and the 'widow maker' - as they call it - was okay, which was a blessing!"

Vincent had open heart surgery on January 17 at St Vincent's Private Hospital in Melbourne.

Coincidentally, three rooms on Level Nine of the hospital - specialising in cardiovascular services - were occupied by Border men.

Table Top man Sam Vonthien, 64, who had a triple bypass on the same day as Vincent, never saw his heart attack coming either despite a genetic predisposition.

The fitter and turner, who always played sport and only stopped going to the gym a few years ago, had a thorough cardiovascular check-up when he turned 60.

"I went to work on the Monday (January 10) and after my shift I did a couple of hours on the mower," he recalled.

"I didn't feel great so I went to the shed and had a couple of beers! The pain came back about 8pm so my wife called an ambulance. I went to the ER and they ran some tests and an hour later they said I'd had a heart attack. I thought: 'Holy s***!'."

On the same day Vincent and Vonthien suffered their heart attacks, Wodonga cleaner Brian Webb, 67, was having a triple bypass at St Vincent's.

With a history of heart disease in his family, Webb always had regular check-ups with his Border cardiologist.

He got stents inserted to widen arteries in 2007 and had a minor heart attack four years ago before screening late last year showed some serious blockages.

"Before that I was working long hours in the cleaning business," he said.

"I felt a bit tired from that but I knew I wasn't getting any younger.

"I was getting exercise from work and I was fit for the job but I wasn't really fit for life.

"My dad died at 55 from a heart attack; I was 54 when I started having issues with my heart."

Late last year former talented footballer and Ovens and Murray administrator Ron Montgomery, 69, collapsed in a Melbourne street from a heart attack and was resuscitated by a fireman passing by.

He had lunch with his daughter on the vibrant Centre Road shopping strip in Bentleigh before he walked 500 metres to buy a TattsLotto ticket.

Lottery aside, Ron was lucky to survive that turn of events just two days before Christmas.

"I had sat down and my eyes started rolling and I was turning blue," he said he later learnt.

"My daughter performed CPR before a fireman, who was passing by, took over.

"The ambulance came within 10 minutes and they put the paddles on me!"

In a coma for 36 hours at Monash Medical Centre, Montgomery had to wait 12 days for open heart surgery because there were no ICU beds available due to the peak of COVID-19 patients.

Eventually he was transferred to Mulgrave Private Hospital for a triple bypass and the recovery.

Montgomery said he had a few setbacks but felt like he was finally turning the corner now.

"My lung collapsed in the surgery," Montgomery said.

"The scar down the middle of my chest didn't heal properly at first.

"I've had complication after complication but I'm doing rehab at Wodonga hospital and finally getting there with my recovery."

IN OTHER NEWS:

Albury resident Stephen Buckle, 66, was on the North Coast of NSW last winter when he noticed something amiss with his health.

He put it down to reflux even though he'd never suffered from it before.

Back in Albury by spring, Stephen had a cardiac stress test, which ended with a ride in an ambulance and more tests.

When the angiogram results ruled out a stent procedure, Stephen was elevated for a quadruple bypass at St Vincent's Private Hospital, all within three days of the stress test.

"They were doing the angiogram and all of a sudden, they said: 'Shut it down', which is something you never want to hear!" he recalled.

"Then the doctor drew me a picture of my heart and showed me I had a 90 per cent blockage, 70 per cent, 50 per cent and one down the bottom they should fix too.

"I didn't think it would turn out to be as serious as it was.

"I've always been fairly active - I swim every day at the pool during summer - but I felt not right in the chest last winter. Luckily I never collapsed and it got picked up quite early."

On the same ward as Buckle, Wodonga man Des Richardson was also getting the works deal in a quadruple bypass.

The former Wodonga and Kiewa Football Club player and still part-time export manager at Wodonga Abattoir said he had a couple of dizzy spells at home and a blackout.

Eventually, further investigations showed one fully blocked artery and three others ranging from 60 to 80 per cent blockages.

"I had no symptoms and I'd never had a heart problem in my life," Des said.

"I played sport until I was 38 and my diet is reasonable although I've always had a sweet tooth."

Now undergoing post-surgery rehabilitation in Wodonga, Vincent said everybody's symptoms were different when it came to heart disease.

He said the urgency to heed heart health warnings had been heightened by the recent deaths of former Australian cricketers Rod Marsh, 74, and Shane Warne, 52, as well as Federal Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching, also only 52.

"Please, everybody, listen to your body, we are not bulletproof, and the older we get we do have a few more problems even though Warnie was only 52," he said.

"Go and see your doctor and insist on a test or check-up.

"Some people don't get warnings and that saddens me so much. No one is immune; any one of us could have been facing Warnie with Rod on the stumps!

"Open heart surgery is one of the most common operations in the world today and as my cardiac surgeon said to me: 'You should be right for another 100,000ks!!'."

Vincent started a Zipper Club for Border people who have had open heart surgery to meet once a month over lunch to compare tips and tricks and share laughs.

Montgomery, who pointed out he'd been back to that same Bentleigh cafe last week without any drama, said there was value in sharing experiences.

"There's plenty of banter (at the Zipper Club) - there were six of us on Thursday (at Birallee Tavern)," he said.

"We've all had different experiences and it's been quite educational.

"Yesterday we all had the grilled fish!"

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