On Friday 25th November several members of the team at Classic & Sportscar Centre and Malton Coachworks are challenging themselves to complete the Yorkshire Three Peaks. James Szkiler, Andrew Welham, Kyle Rose, Joe Sawyer and Mike Francis (and potentially a few more members of the team) are raising funds, and importantly raising awareness of a heart condition known as Aortic Dissection, a serious condition that occurs when there is a partial tear in the aortic wall, the heart’s main artery. It is a time-critical medical emergency that without early diagnosis and treatment is often fatal.

On Friday 29th September Martin Ingamells (photo above), working at Malton Coachworks Bodyshop suffered an Aortic Dissection, and days later spent 10.5 hours in the operating theatre having the damage to his Aorta repaired, and a metal valve fitted in his heart to regulate blood into the previously damaged area. Martin, aged 53 and with no previous history of cardiac issues has successfully come through his operation, and a long recovery at home is underway. This potentially life-changing incident has not only been a horrific shock to Martin and his family, but also to his colleagues. Martin’s story has given the management team the drive to make a difference and to do something to raise awareness and funding for the Aortic Dissection Charity Fund who are educating medical professionals, promoting medical research into the detection, prevention and treatment of aortic dissection and working with those responsible for healthcare policy in the UK and Ireland to ensure there is consistency in the provision of diagnostic services for this condition.

Thousands of people per year lose their lives from this in the UK and a third of those suffering from this condition are at some point misdiagnosed. When diagnosed and treated on time it has a better than 80% survival rate, but Martin was mis-diagnosed twice and the mortality rate for those 24 hours into aortic dissection is said to be 50%, Martin’s diagnosis took 72 hours and this is why support for this charitable trust is so important.

Here is Martin’s story in his own words, written from his hospital bed over the last weekend of October...

That this happened was such a shock to me, I’d always presumed that any serious health problems I might encounter might be down to a respiratory issue due to a prior, (now kicked since October 2010) smoking habit. How wrong could I be, as my cardiac surgeon said when I told him this, “That’s what we all think until this comes from out of nowhere”. Certainly, out of nowhere it came all guns blazing…..

We’re quite a tightknit crew in the bodyshop and on a Thursday afternoon I ask everyone if they’d like me to get them anything from the fantastic local butcher and pie shop I pass on my way in to work as a Friday morning treat for us all. Friday the 30th September was a normal Friday morning, nondescript if I’m honest. I’d stopped for the pie and sandwich order at Glaves Butchers in Brompton, exchanged the usual pleasantries with the staff and headed off with a box of delightfully aromatic treats in the passenger footwell. Having shared the pastries and sandwiches out and thoroughly enjoyed a delicious pork pie I set about the project I was quite deeply involved in, a full body restoration and colour change on a Jaguar E-Type Series III V12 Roadster.

I was making a repair panel for the inner wheel arch when I felt a tightening across my chest that was quite disconcerting and then pressure in between my shoulder blades and a tearing sensation followed by quite a cool feeling down my back. I was very concerned by this and said to my friend and workmate Mike.

”I think something is wrong here mate”

“You are grey Mart, you don’t look well at all”

I went to the office to inform Emma of what was happening and the decision to take me to Malton Hospital was taken and Emma rather quickly had me in the hospital reception. After relating to the nurse what had happened, she was told there wasn’t a lot that they could do as they didn’t have any doctors who could be contacted. Bless Emma, she wasn’t accepting this and within 5-10 minutes I was attached to an ECG and they’d found an anomaly with my heartbeat. I’d told the nurse about the pork pie I’d had earlier and she gave me a dose of Gaviscon and said it was probably indigestion but to maybe go to Scarborough A&E and take the ECG printout with me. That was my first misdiagnosis.

I left work and drove the 23 miles to Scarborough A&E department unknowingly putting myself and other road users at risk due to the severity of what had happened to me. In the A&E department I saw the triage nurses and was again put on an ECG and had blood taken for testing. I was still in severe pain especially the area between my shoulder blades which was excruciating and down towards the bottom of my back. After the doctor looking at my case had received the results from the pathology lab which showed no ‘tropes’ (Troponin is a protein that's released into the bloodstream during a heart attack). She said she was stumped as to what caused and was causing the problems I was experiencing and that it was probably the sphincter muscle at the top of my gullet had spasmed. She suggested this would calm down over the next day or so and to take paracetamol to ease the pain. Misdiagnosis number two.

Over the weekend I went in peaks and troughs of pain and was extremely irritable, Monday was a better day once I had got to lunchtime but unbeknownst to me this is a classic sign of cardiac problems they refer to as masking. This is where the pain and the symptoms subside enough to give a feeling of you may be getting better. I started to suffer the pain again in the evening and retired to bed early that night to try to find some respite from it. The next morning after very little sleep I was up before Annie my wife, and when she saw me she asked how I felt because I looked shocking and should really consider going back to A&E which I promptly did.

We went through all the same tests as we had done the previous Friday and all to the same results. This time I was taken up to a new ward away from A&E which I believe was Coronary Care and was then transferred to the care of another doctor of who’s name I cannot recall unfortunately. He was different again and spoke to me at length to ascertain reactions from me and how I was responding to conversation and questioning. His solution to nothing showing up in blood tests and my being alert and aware of my conversation and surroundings was to send me for a CT scan. The outcome of this showed I’d had an Aortic Dissection, a rare and often fatal episode that is often overlooked or not diagnosed with tragic consequences... I was immediately taken by ambulance to Castle Hill hospital to receive the treatment I needed. This involved a 10.5 hour operation to repair the damage to the Aorta and fit a metal valve in my heart to regulate the blood into the previously damaged area. I was in hospital recovering from open heart surgery for the next three weeks and fighting a way back to recovery….. A road I am still on but thankfully with fantastic support of my family and James my employer. His concern, help and communication with my daughter Chloe when I physically couldn’t face it has been a tremendous comfort to us all. We can’t give enough thanks for what that has meant to us, truly we can’t.