Swimming pool engineer Dai Jones had always kept physically fit but his life changed dramatically when he went for a run during the first lockdown.
The dad to daughters Poppy, 13, Evie, 11, and four-year-old Erin, explained: “I’d only gone about a quarter of a mile up the road and I couldn’t breathe properly. I came home and told my fiancee Rachel there was something not right. She told me to go to the doctor. He gave me a test and said I had a very loud murmur. He wanted it checked out. Between then and him getting me an appointment, I woke up one morning and I couldn’t get back to sleep. There was no pain but something just didn’t feel right.”
Tests at Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, showed an aortic aneurism. This is a bulge in the wall of the aorta, the major blood vessel carrying blood from the heart. It can rupture, causing life-threatening bleeding. After spending three days in the Bridgend hospital in September, 2020, Mr Jones, from Port Talbot, was transferred to Morriston’s Cardiac Centre, ready for planned surgery to be carried out a few days later. However, on his arrival in Morriston Hospital an Echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) showed pending rupture aneurysm with fluid around the heart, which needed an emergency operation. Get Swansea stories straight to your inbox with our newsletter.
