Casey Barker shares health update a month after heart attack

A sporty dad, 27, had his “chilled morning” suddenly disrupted when he began feeling “heart-burn” pains, which rapidly escalated and turned out to be a heart-attack. Casey Barker, YouTuber and brother of Strictly Come Dancing star Saffron Barker, said he was at his Brighton home in West Sussex when the pains started on December 29. Speaking to Express.co.uk, he said his symptoms ramped up in the short space of 15 minutes.

But little did he know, these pangs were signs of a major heart attack, which had been caused by a blockage in his main artery, starving his brain of air and blood supply.

He said: “All of a sudden, it just felt like a little heartburn type thing. Within the space of about 10 to 15 minutes, the heartburns went really strong to the point where I was curled up in a ball on a rug in my lounge, almost crying in pain.”

While medics said the heart attack was unexplained, it had been just 10 days before that the dad-of-three had been discharged from hospital following a chest infection.

At the time he protested he was “going to die” if he was discharged.

But the YouTuber said the doctors, who took vials of his blood in the hospital, told him there was “no correlation” between the chest infection and the heart attack. But, despite this, his mysterious heart attack has since been used as a case study, he claimed.

Casey’s fiancée, Nicola Corrales, who just two months ago had given birth to a baby girl called Remi, suggested calling the ambulance. But he refused, saying it was “just a heartburn”.

After a few minutes, he changed his mind and Ms Corrales frantcally dialled 999, only to be told there would be a two-hour wait.

She decided to take Casey to the Royal Sussex Hospital herself with Remi and their other children Harlow, five, and Lake, three, in the car.

“I went to the hospital, checked myself in,” he continued. “I pretty much passed out on the reception desk.

“When I was trying to explain what was wrong with me, my legs just went like jelly. I fell on the desk and I said I think I’m having a heart attack.”

Doctors wheeled Mr Barker to urgent care where he was given an ECG that detected an irregular heartbeat. He was then taken to a laboratory to do an angiogram.

He added: “They found a blood clot pretty quickly on the main artery supplying blood and air to the brain.” They did say ‘there was a blockage, which looks like it’s caused by cholesterol.

“However, you don’t have high cholesterol in your blood’. So they couldn’t pinpoint any reason that it happened necessarily.

“My diagnosis from the doctor and the nurses and everyone was pretty much just you’re very unlucky.”

Mr. Barker was told he would be rushed into surgery so they could restore the blood supply to his brain.

“I think that is when my head started going a little bit crazy,” he said.

“I have a two-month-old (now she’s six months old), a three-year-old and a five-year-old. They were straight away to the top of my head… I thought oh my god, are they going to remember me when they’re older if I don’t make it through this?”

Surgeons inserted a stent into his artery, a wire tube used as scaffolding to keep the blood vessel open.

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Following the operation, Mr Barker began a difficult weeks-long recovery.

“I just couldn’t get out of bed for three or four weeks. On the form [of recovery guidance] it didn’t say I should be doing anything too strenuous… It was more like, you should be able to make the table, make yourself a cup of tea, things like that. But I was just feeling so out of breath that I couldn’t even do those things.

“I couldn’t even get down the stairs, three weeks, four weeks into my recovery.

“By like week five or six, it sort of clicked a little bit more… I felt I sort of went from zero to… definitely not 100… more like to 60, really quick.

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A post shared by Casey Barker (@caaseybarker)

Mr Barker is now fully recovered and says he is the healthiest he has ever been.

“Ever since the day that I got up and started doing things… It really just started getting better and better and better. Now to this day, I feel healthier and fitter and stronger than I’ve probably ever felt.”

“I’m in the gym every day now for a couple of hours. I try and go in the sauna a few times a week. Drinking a lot of water. Really, really healthy meals all the time. I’ve cut most caffeine out yeah, I’ve sort of just taken as many steps as I possibly can to be a healthier version of myself.”

To find out more about Casey’s journey and follow his journey see his Instagram: @caaseybarker

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