In last week’s Galloway News we left Katherine McIsaac in mid-air aboard a stricken British Airways 767 jet above Vancouver.
The plane had flown into a flock of Canada geese on takeoff, wrecking one engine and damaging the other.
The year was 1995 and Katherine, from Powhillimont near Southerness, had only recently got a job as cabin crew after working for the airline as ground staff.
Now 56, after more than a quarter of a century she still remembers vividly how her training kicked in as she calmed the terrified passengers.
“We had to circle for 45 minutes to dump fuel,” she tells me at her home.
“With only one sick engine we had to get high enough to do that – 10,000 feet – so the fuel would evaporate.
“We had to play the emergency video for the passengers, which is used only when things are potentially catastrophic.
“We told the passengers how to brace properly for impact and what instructions they will receive on the moment of impact.
“That was the only time I have done a safety demonstration when everybody looked.
“You could have heard a pin drop!”
In the remaining 20 minutes before the descent, Katherine admits to “having a moment with my fellow crew” in the rear galley.
“We were hugging each other and wishing each other good luck,” she says, her voice trembling slightly.
“It was all about keeping the passengers calm.
“Then at 2,000 feet the captain announced ‘cabin crew, take your seats for landing’.
“We were calm – the training is drilled into you and it was clear in my head.”
Talking about the emergency situation, Katherine remembers how the bird strikes had crippled more than the engines.
“The damage to the plane meant we had no brakes, no reverse thrust and no flaps to slow us down in landing,” she recalls.
“All the hydraulics had been wrecked by the geese hitting the plane.
“The undercarriage had not been retracted and without hydraulics we did not know if it would hold up when we touched down.
“All we had to stop us was the length of the runway – and because we had no flaps or brakes it was a very fast landing.
“I remember the fire engines chasing us down the runway spraying foam everywhere.
“The tyres went on fire because our landing speed was much higher than it should have been.
“Eventually the plane came to a stop – the pilots were amazing.
“Everybody was cheering and clapping.
“All those passengers and crew – I still get quite emotional thinking about it.
“On the ground we looked back up at the plane and the right engine was just blown up.
“Three blades were cracked in the left engine and could have gone at any time.
“If that had happened, that would have been us.
“Those pilots and their skills, who do on the day exactly what is needed, were just incredible.”
It’s obvious thinking on how hundreds of people’s lives were saved still deeply affects Katherine – but back then it was soon business as usual.
“They had to fly new engines up from the Boeing factory and fitted them to the plane we had been on,” she says.
“And we flew it back three days later.
“We bought the pilots a cuddly Canada goose to put on the flight deck dashboard as a good luck mascot.
“We were truly lucky – it was the skill of the pilots that got us down.
“Airports now take many more precautions.
“It was my dream job and I loved every minute of it.”
Katherine smiles at how her love of flying landed her an extra bonus – her hubby Jonny, a BA pilot.
“We met in Paris and again in San Francisco,” she says.
“That was probably the first time we noticed there was a thing between us.
“And that’s when we thought we should go on a date when we got home.
“I feel totally privileged to have done that job,” she adds.
“I was so lucky and met the most amazing people, and made lifelong friends.”
I ask the obvious question – did she welcome many famous people on board?
“Well, we had Princess Diana travelling with Harry and William up to Edinburgh,” Katherine laughs.
“The boys would have been around eight or 10 at the time and it was my first year as cabin crew.
“I remember them climbing over the seats to get to the loo!
“We had the Spice Girls, Andre Agassi, Paul Gascoigne, Hugh Grant – but my favourite celebrity was Sir Richard Attenborough.
“He was the perfect gentleman and so charming.”
After leaving BA in 2003, Katherine tells me, she and Jonny, with young daughters Megan and Islay in tow moved to Powhillimont near Kirkbean in 2005.
“We drove up the road with all our stuff listening to Live Aid,” she laughs.
“It was very different but I would never go back to my previous life.
“Jonny grew up in Southerness, we have an aunt and uncle who farm up near Penpont and my brother is in Edinburgh.
“And my happiest childhood memories are of spending time with my grandparents Bunty and Joe Wilson in Aberfeldy.
“Scotland for me has always been associated with happy memories and it was like coming home.
“I thing Scotland is in my DNA too much!
“Megan and Islay both went to Kirkbean Primary School, the same as Jonny.
“They all attended Dumfries Academy and their names are on the board there.
“Jonny was science dux and so was Megan, and Islay was language dux.
“And Jonny and I got married in our garden in 2007.
“We had the ceremony out the back and invited everybody.”
The tone of our conversation switches suddenly as Katherine explains how in 2015 her GP heard a murmur in her heart.
The problem was a bicuspid aortic valve, where the door between the heart and the body’s main artery has only two flaps instead of three.
Over time the artery clogs up – stenosis – and the valve can begin to leak.
“I was supposed to get six monthly checks but it was getting worse,” Katherine explains.
“The artery was getting very narrow, I was experiencing severe fatigue and got out of breath very easily.
“Then Covid hit and my dad died in November 2020.
“My heart surgery was scheduled for February 2021 but the surgeon said the stress on my heart from my grief would be too much.
“He just did not want to operate so close to my dad dying and said I needed time to grieve.
“They know the outcome of the surgery is better and the recovery is better if you are in a positive frame of mind.
Coping with news that without intervention you will die much sooner than you had bargained for must have been hard to take, I suggest.
“Well, I’m quite a positive person and don’t give myself any sympathy,” Katherine says.
“But I did struggle with the diagnosis.
“When you are told in your forties that you have a life-limiting condition – that was difficult.
“I was told by my surgeon – after the open heart operation – if I had not had the surgery I would not have seen the year out.
“My heart was beginning to enlarge in the middle and my liver was beginning to fail.
“I was in the Jubilee for nine days and could not see anyone because of Covid.
“Nobody could visit me – although my surgeon came to see me every morning.
“At the Golden Jubilee the staff were amazing with their standard of care.
“And at DGRI, three weeks after surgery, the staff there were lovely too.
“During Covid those people were working three week blocks.
“The sacrifices they made so they could care for people was incredible.
“And through all that time the Golden Jubilee remained Covid free.
“My heart has fully recovered now and is back to its normal size.”
Katherine is full of praise for the skill of surgeons and nursing staff but, having been given a new lease of life, is campaigning for faster treatment and better aftercare for patients with arterial stenosis.
“After the operation I was trying to access cardiac care – and it took me 19 months,” she explains.
“That’s when I got my post-op check – it’s supposed to be three months.
“The fact that they can cut you open, stop your heart and put this mechanical valve in, then not check up on you for all that time I thought was mad.
“In my case the lack of follow up care was down to the fact that the region at the time did not have a full time cardiologist.
“I have been to Holyrood twice with Heart Research UK and Heart Valve Voice, and met top politicians,” she adds.
“It’s given me a platform to advocate for better treatment journeys for patients and better cardiac care for women.”
Huge improvements are needed to tackle the latter issue in particular, Katherine reckons.
“There is a massive gender difference with cardiac care, particularly with regard to heart disease,” she says.
“Symptoms can be very different for women compared to men.
“Dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath are often put down to things like hormonal imbalance and the menopause, whereas it could be your heart that’s the problem.
“Even the crushing pain men talk of clutching their chest is less likely for women – my pain was through my whole body.
“Women can also be so busy taking care of their families, when they get fatigued they put it down to that.”
Katherine tells me she’s on Heart Research UK’s advisory group to help target funding effectively.
“They wanted patient advocates and people with lived experience to make sure that when they give out grants,the money goes to the right place,” she explains.
“For example, more funding could go to organisations or companies approaching the British Heart Foundation or Heart Research UK saying they want to develop a different kind of pacemaker.
“HRUK wants to make sure that patients have a say in making sure the money goes to the right places.
“I’m also still involved with Heart Valve Voice as admin for UK patients with heart valve disease.
“We want to help people in that situation – aortic stenosis is a horrible thing to go through and if you’re younger it’s an especially hard thing to wrap your head around.
“Not everybody makes it and it’s quite tough sometimes – I lost two members last week, one 46 the other 68.”
Faster action in spotting early warning signs so patient outcomes can be improved is something about which Katherine feels very strongly,
“We need more timely pathways,” she tells me in no uncertain terms.
“A simple stethoscope check can pick up a murmur.
“Why are these not being done in GP surgeries?
“We have an ageing population and there’s going to be more and more aortic stenosis.
“Timely intervention is essential – when people are in better physical health, recovery is so much quicker.
“Why should patients wait until they are nearly dying when recovery for them could be much more difficult?
“When aortic stenosis is first diagnosed they grade you mild, moderate, severe or critical,” she explains.
“On diagnosis I was mild/moderate and was told I would not need surgery for 15 or 20 years.
“But in the end it was only five.
“They try to get you operated on when you are in the severe category, but I was critical.
“And in the last six months before the operation I would have to stop going up the stairs because I would get so out of breath.
“That was hard on me, hard on Jonny and hard on the girls.
“And the night before my operation I wrote my will.
“It also decided what music I wanted.
“There’s something in your brain that switches off and on.
“And in the morning of my surgery I was really calm and accepting.
“I was reconciled that if I was not going to wake up, my bills were paid and my horses would be cared for.
“But, thank God, they were able to fix me.”
Was making it through life-saving surgery the reason for getting involved with the patient support groups?
“Yes, that’s what drives me – someone has to advocate,” Katherine says.
“I’m not shy or scared of telling politicians they are not doing their job.
“It’s the quiet people who continue to suffer at home and are too shy or embarrassed to speak.”
Katherine, a customer services adviser with Wheatley Homes South, has a permanent reminder of her open heart surgery.
“I have a 10-inch zipper on my chest,” she smiles, recalling how her recovery inspired Kirkbean man Ian Baird to organise a marathon cycle challenge for the Heart of Scotland appeal last year,
“I wasn’t having 30 cyclists out there cycling without me for a charity of my choice,” she laughs.
