A woman claims she was told by doctors three times that her palpitations were down to anxiety - when actually she had a heart muscle disease leaving her at risk of cardiac arrest. Jade Cooke, 35, used to do yoga five times a week and knew something was wrong when she stated to get extremely breathless.
But she said her worries were repeatedly dismissed until she demanded an X-ray, which led to other investigations that revealed she had a serious heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). It was triggered by a flu-like virus she got one Christmas and left her heart barely pumping blood.
Despite her age, she was at high risk of a cardiac arrest and had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) with pacemaker fitted in a five-hour operation. Initially so weak she couldn't wash her own hair, after six weeks she was back doing gentle yoga.
