Cade Lucas
Werribee’s Michael Czajkowski was enjoying a party at a friend’s place in October 2021, when suddenly the fun stopped and so (very nearly) did his heart.
“I just started having a bit of chest pains,” said the now 40 year old of when first noticed he was having a heart attack.
“I wasn’t sure what was going on and then I sort of told my wife and she was thinking maybe I’d had a few too many beers or something.”
But when the pain continued and he began vomiting, Mr Czajkowski asked his wife, Paris, to call an ambulance.
“As soon as I asked that she was like, ‘hang on, there must be something wrong because you would never ask that’, Mr Czajkowski said of his wife’s, instincts which proved to be correct.
“I had to get rushed to hospital and then within an hour I was actually on the table had a stent put in to open up about 100% blockage in my front LAD (left anterior descending artery).”
Michael Czajkowski was a fit, healthy, footballer and father and now, a heart attack sufferer.
While he improved physically doing rehab at IPC in Hoppers Crossing (“they’re just amazing” said Paris Czajkowski) the mental and emotional scars proved harder to recover from.
“I’d just sort of got really down in the dumps,“ said Mr Czajkowski of the period following his heart attack.
“I got depressed and I didn’t really want to talk to anyone. And then I had a few weeks at home sort of just sitting around, I couldn’t pick up the kids, I couldn’t mow the lawn. I wasn’t able to do anything.”
It wasn’t until weeks later that Mr Czajkowski realised he was actually okay and rather than wallow in grief over his brush with death, he was going to talk about it instead.
Before long this desire to be open and upfront about his heart attack morphed into Mr Mr Czajkowski’s very own heart health foundation: StickFat Collective.
“We made a few T-shirts and beanies and stickers and cards then I’ve done a few talks for the Rotary Club and I’ve done a little bit of work with the Heart Foundation,” he said of the work he’s done with StickFat which focuses on raising awareness about heart attacks happening at any age, not just to those who are overweight and over 50.
“It doesn’t discriminate on age,” Mr Czajkowski said.
“I was so young so at 38. It doesn’t matter how old you are. It can attack anyone.”
www.facebook.com/stickfatcollective/
