‘ONE DAY, HE JUST
COLLAPSED AND DIED –
AND I WAS NEXT’
It is one of the most common causes of death in
most Western countries. It took her father’s life, and
she was next. Mercy Adeoshun shares the story of
her battle against Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD)
‘I
t was so sudden. One day
he collapsed and died –
just like that! It was only
after the post-mortem that
we found out he had Ischemic
Heart Disease (IHD), which is
a condition where there’s a
reduced blood supply to the
heart muscles. You can imagine
my shock when I found out I
had the same disease.
It was two years after my
father’s death that I started
feeling chest pains. After some
time, the pain worsened, and
I started struggling for breath
when doing the most basic
things.
I had two young children at the
time, and it became difficult
to even bathe them. I couldn’t
climb stairs or run – I felt dizzy
if I tried.
I took time off work, but it just
kept getting worse. When I
went to get myself checked
out at the hospital, the minute
6
I mentioned chest pain, I was
taken straight to the emergency
room, where I was examined
and told that I needed to speak
to a consultant right away.
THIS SUNDAY
10AM
for regular tests. Reality burst
my self-deluded bubble that it
wasn’t so bad when I almost
collapsed at work. It was getting
worse, and I felt powerless to
stop it.
I attended an event like the
Day of Power at the UCKG,
where I learned how to use the
power of faith to determine my
recovery. I was convinced that
where the doctors were limited,
God would take over.
Panic sunk in as I was taken
to another room and put on
an electrocardiography (ECG)
machine to measure the rate
and regularity of my heartbeats.
The consultant told me that
I had an abnormality in my
heart, and that it had been
there since birth. He said that,
out of six T-waves (the recovery
rate of the ventricles shown on
an ECG), five were abnormal!
From then on, I was booked in
As time passed, I started
to see a change. After six
months, the symptoms started
disappearing. I continued to
attend doctors’ appointments
until my cardiologist gave me
the all clear. The same tests
that had shown abnormalities
now showed that my heart
was normal. Years have passed
since this experience, and I’m
still ticking along nicely.’
uckg.org
• 020 7686 6000
Mercy Adeoshun