REFOCUSING ON HEALTH AFTER HEART ATTACK

Despite recovering from a heart attack and working through grief and loss, Gary Kilburn has had a lifelong commitment to his wellbeing. His story shows it’s never too late to look after yourself.

Ask Gary Kilburn about life and he’d tell you he’s lived a long and full one. At 77 years of age, he’s had his share of ups and downs, but just because he’s entering his later years, he’s not settling for a life half lived.

When Gary joined Westpac bank in 1993 as part of the wealth management team, one of the benefits included in his package was HCF health insurance that covered himself, his wife Pauline and their two children.

As is so often the case when we’re younger, the family didn’t face any significant health issues. But that all changed as both Gary and Pauline started to get a little older.

Gary has an unusual condition called Dupuytren’s contracture, a hand deformity which, over years, can cause one or more fingers to stay bent toward the palm, complicating everyday activities.

“I had an operation to fix that, and it wasn’t a big deal at all,” he says. Much more troubling was a family predisposition to high cholesterol. In 2004, he was vacuuming at home in preparation for some visiting friends, when he felt a pain in his chest.

He rang Pauline, “She said, ‘I think you might be having a heart attack,’” he recalls. “I found out that I had four blocked arteries, one of them almost completely. The next week I had a quadruple bypass.”

When you need help helping others

That was 20 years ago, but for many years after his recovery, Gary helped to care for his wife Pauline. When the couple married in 1967, she was prescribed steroids for an existing condition.

“In 2007 or 2008, that progressed into polymyositis [a rare inflammatory disease that causes muscle weakness], which was treated with something like chemotherapy,” he says. “She lost a lot of weight and lost [use of] her muscles.”

After several more setbacks, Pauline had to attend hospital every two weeks for an infusion to help her immunity.

Gary remembers: “All the costs relating to hospitalisations, operations and everything not covered by Medicare was picked up by HCF. I can’t remember any issues with costs over all those years.”

Eventually, Pauline died in 2020 from an aortic aneurysm. Gary and Pauline had been married for 52 years. He describes her as a very caring person who had “always volunteered” and worked as a justice of the peace to help the community. He still misses her every day.

Moving on to a new life stage

Since Pauline died in early 2020, Gary has recommitted to improving his own health and wellbeing. Always healthy when younger, he’s never been an unhealthy weight, has attended the gym regularly throughout his life and has always eaten well. But a heart attack has a way of making someone reassess their own mortality.

“I’ve been going to the same gym since 2008,” he says. “I see a passing parade of people coming in. They do three months then they stop when they don’t get the results they want.”

Each year, he claims a portion of the cost of his gym membership from HCF as part of his health plan, and for a length of time after his heart attack, a person from one of HCF’s health support programs would ring quarterly to assess his progress.

“They’d check to see how I was going and what I was eating and how much I weighed. Eventually I said, ‘Look, I really think somebody else should be [doing] this, because I’m pretty fit and healthy, and look after myself. You can trust me to do that.’”

Our approach to supporting members like Gary has evolved, and we have partnered with The COACH Program, a leading evidence-based coaching program. The program is run by our own in-house Health Concierge team to support eligible members with a heart condition or diabetes.

HCF has employed and trained health professionals like dietitians, pharmacists and nurses to support eligible members with our 100% telehealth program, in collaboration with advice and treatment plans from the member’s doctor as an extra helping hand.

You might be eligible for the COACH program if you’re an HCF member and have a heart condition or diabetes and had HCF hospital cover for at least 12 months that includes heart conditions and vascular system. Clinical eligibility applies. Excluding Ambulance Only, Accident Only Basic Cover and Overseas Visitors Health Cover.

Staying connected to community with a positive outlook 

Gary has had several other procedures in recent years, including a GreenLight prostate procedure, a hernia operation and the removal of a lump in his arm. But he has a positive outlook, no matter the issues he faces: “When you’re older, you’re a work in progress because all the parts start to break down. As you get older, that’s part of the challenge.”

He’s also been more aware of maintaining social ties, which he admits as an older, newly single person isn’t always easy.

“I’m putting more effort into entertaining than you would normally because I’ve got time and, although we always entertained, it’s now up to me to keep the home fires burning. I bring the guys in for lunch and we have a sausage sizzle and a few beers. Their wives drop them off and pick them up. A lot of people don’t do it, and we know what happens… They end up with other health problems.”

Acts of Uncommon Care

As HCF celebrates its 90th birthday in 2022, we’re proud of the thousands of acts of care, big and small, that have positively changed the lives of our members, like Gary, since 1932. Our history is a story of industry-leading achievements, member-first milestones and investment in health and wellbeing innovation to provide Uncommon Care for our members. We’ve always believed in finding ways to help you be your healthiest self.

Words by Carrie Hutchinson
Published August 2022