Malcolm Hebden praises Blackpool hospital for saving his life

Malcolm Hebden, who is currently taking a break from his role as Norris Cole in Coronation Street, has praised a Blackpool hospital for saving his life.

Malcom was treated at the Lancashire Cardiac Centre in December last year, where consultant cardiothoracic surgeon Joseph Zacharias ‘wallpapered’ his heart after a massive heart attack which left him in a coma.

In an interview with The Blackpool Gazette, Malcolm says: “Most of December I was in an induced coma, in the care of these brilliant, wonderful people at the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. Fortunately I didn’t realise how bad it was; I was dying. The cardiac team, headed by Mr Zacharias, simply saved my life." 

Malcolm had visited his GP with a chest infection and after listening to his heart he was called later that same day to be told an emergency ambulance was on its way to collect him and take him to the Royal Blackburn Hospital, the nearest hospital to his home in the Ribble Valley. 

Malcom says: “I was informed by my doctor I had had at least one heart attack. I was sent to hospital, by emergency ambulance to Blackburn hospital and was there one night. While there I collapsed and was brought here to Blackpool Victoria - where I was operated on, in a procedure which was described by my surgeon Mr Zacharias as ‘ground-breaking’. The heart attack tore a hole in my heart, they operated and took a chance.” 

He was moved back to the Royal Blackburn Hospital still in a coma, and came round 'some time in January', before being discharged in late February, after almost three months in hospital. 

"From getting into that ambulance at home, I don't really remember much at all," Malcolm said. "It was almost like I thought it was happening to Norris Cole, like a soap opera about the NHS."

“People are asking if I’m returning to the Street, but that’s just not known yet," he said. "I may do, I may not, it depends on my recovery.” 

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