From Ian “Kanga” Cairns:
This photo of me at Waimea in 1975 turned up on social media the other day. It’s just before a picture I have hanging in my living room. That’s Gary Speece in front of me. I’m posting this to say thank you for all the great times that surfing has given me.
On July 13th I had a “widow maker” heart attack after surfing with Alisa in Laguna. 100% blockage in my left heart artery. If we had not done things right in the first half hour, this would be an obituary.
Here’s what I did right:
- When I felt something wrong in my chest very different to anything ever, I said I need help now.
- We did not drive, we called the ambulance. They started treatment immediately and called ahead to the hospital who were waiting to immediately admit me.
- We chose a hospital that was not the closest, but we knew had an excellent stoke/heart department and I was quickly into surgery, getting a stent that opened up the blood flow again.
Not acting on any of those decisions in sequence would have resulted in a different outcome.
Shaun Tomson asked me to write about this, as a reminder to any of you who are age challenged like myself.
Tomorrow (yesterday) I turn 67 and soon will be surfing with Alisa again and watching my boys graduate from college. These are the things that have deep meaning to me.
—Kanga
And by the way, Happy Belated Birthday Kanga and thank you for sharing this.
