“I really don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t had my Equipsme plan to turn to. I’m like a new man after my heart surgery. So thank you Equipsme for giving me my life back!”
Roeland Vroon, 62, from Cornwall, was used to leading a very active lifestyle. Working at the Falmouth Boat Company, which builds and repairs yachts, Roeland is a keen sailor - and when on land also enjoys riding his motorbike and walking.
It was on a relatively easy hike he first noticed he was getting out of breath very quickly. What turned out to be heart issues also turned out to be quite complicated. After two failed operations, Roeland decided to make use of his Equipsme plan – and ended up seeing one of the top cardiologists in the country.
Roeland explains: “I do like a walk, particularly if it ends up at a pub! We were out one day and I had to stop three times on a very slight incline. Basically it felt like someone with size 16 boots was standing on my chest.
“Of course I went to my NHS GP and was initially diagnosed with angina. While I wasn’t about to drop down dead, it had a pretty large effect. I was very easily out of puff, had chest pains - and couldn’t do lots of things I used to.
Heart surgery
“Many tests and scans later it was decided I actually needed surgery to fix a blockage in a branch of my right coronary artery. Now these blockages or plugs can be hard and calcified, which means you’re in real trouble, or goopy. Mine was determined to be the goopy kind. It meant undergoing a procedure where the surgery team go in through your wrist and sort of poke through to open the artery back up and put a stent in.
“You’re awake through the operation, and you even get to watch it all on TV! I was really interested in the process, but unfortunately I had to watch it twice - because I had to have the operation twice. Even more unfortunately, both times it was unsuccessful.
“It turns out the contrast fluid they use to see blood flow only works where the blood is actually flowing! So the blockage meant my surgeon couldn’t see what he was doing and couldn’t punch through safely without risking damage to the artery.
“It was an exhausting experience, not just the three and half hours on a slab but recovering in a very busy and very noisy cardiology ward - which was honestly my idea of torture. Not only that but at one point the pressure band on my wrist wound came undone and that was messy and unpleasant, as you can imagine. And after all of that my heart still wasn’t fixed.
Turning to Equipsme
“At the end of the second operation the consultant said to me that essentially my problem was above his pay grade. They couldn’t help me further – the best they could do was to pump me full of beta blockers, which was not a prospect I was looking forward to.”
That’s when Roeland decided enough was enough, and turned to his Equipsme plan. He continues: “By that time I was quite fed up, and I’d clearly gone as far as I could go with the NHS. So I thought let’s go up a notch and bring Equipsme in on the job.
“My plan includes private diagnosis and treatment from AXA Health, so I called them up and explained what was going on. They arranged for me to see someone called Dr Julian Strange at the Cleveland Clinic in London – one of the top heart surgeons in the country and an expert in my particular condition.
“When I went to see him he had all the medical notes and all the pictures and videos of my case so far. We had a good chat and he could see I’d been through the wars, but said he liked a challenge. So I was booked in for a third operation.
“Before this I had never seen a hospital from the inside, and now I’ve seen two. The difference in my experiences was like night and day. The Cleveland Clinic is practically in the garden of Buckingham Palace, and we were so well received. Everyone was very kind, very professional, and it was clean, calm and quiet. I’ve stayed in worse hotels!
“This time they went in through both wrists, and the surgeon was assisted by another cardiology consultant. So one went in through one wrist with an imaging system, and one through the other with the tools and stents. Meanwhile I was having fun with the crew because of course I’m an old hand at all this now!
As good as new
“Luckily for me the third time turned out to be the charm. They managed to poke through the blockage, and found two other places where the artery was narrowing and put stents in those, too. Of course the imaging fluid could suddenly flow through and I could see it all on the TV screen, like the whole world was opening back up.
“Three stents and two hours later it was over, and the operation was a huge success. The surgeon came to see me afterwards and said as far as he was concerned, I was as good as new. And he was right - I was.
“The improvement was immediate - suddenly I could do all of the things I used to do without any struggle at all. It’s like being given a new lease of life. I’m back sailing, walking up hills and driving my motorbike, again. And I was back at work a week later, too. It was amazing.
“I really don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t had my Equipsme plan to turn to. I’d certainly be on medication for the rest of my life, and probably limited in what I could do day-to-day. I absolutely could not have afforded to self-pay for this kind of surgery, that’s for sure. So thank you Equipsme for giving me my life back!
Getting better faster
“I’m also immensely grateful to the Falmouth Boat Company and my boss Jonathan that as a perk of the job he offers private health insurance through Equipsme. And it’s not a daft thing to do, when you think about it. If your employee has a health niggle and you can send them fast-track through the private system, you can have them back at work in a fraction of the time the NHS would take. That’s actually pretty smart.
“I’m certainly not upset with the NHS, because they can only do what they can do with the resources they have. But for my particular problem going private meant I got the very best technology and imaging tools - as well as very experienced senior consultants - which made a huge difference to my outcome.
“Your health cannot be messed with. Don’t wait to get yourself sorted out – life is too short. It’s so important to make sure you’re well enough to enjoy it.”
