TEN days before he was due to walk her down the aisle, Hollie MacPhee’s dad had five cardiac arrests and almost died. His only daughter went from planning her wedding day to believing she would have to plan his funeral.
Marcus MacPhee from Glasgow was 49 when he took ill on his way to work as a joiner in November last year. He was violently sick and felt numb – not the normal symptoms of a heart attack. He had five cardiac arrests and medics told Hollie to say her goodbyes to her beloved father.
Hollie, 26, a self-confessed daddy’s girl, said: “Dying was the outcome they all went with, they thought he wouldn’t make it. In total my dad got five stents fitted which is a lot for someone who had no heart problems at all.
“But the wedding was creeping closer and closer every day and we worried we might have a funeral on our hands rather than a wedding.”
Marcus only survived, says Hollie, because the ‘stars aligned for him’ that day.
She explained: “It was what we call a silent heart attack, without the crushing pain which is usually the big symptom of a heart attack. On the phone he thought he was making perfect sense but he was slurring his words and was almost feverish.
“All the stars aligned for him. Everyone was where they needed to be. His boss phoned an ambulance and went to the nearest house to ask for help. The woman who answered the door was a nurse.”
She saw Marcus lying across the front seats of his van and told the call handler how serious his condition was. Soon he was in an ambulance going to the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank.
Hollie was on her way to lectures at Caledonian University in Glasgow when she heard the news. At first she thought Marcus would have a stent inserted, a small procedure that takes less than half an hour. When she was still waiting for an update hours later, she knew something was wrong.
Her fiance, Andrew, and other family members joined her. They were moved to the relatives’ room which Hollie knew “is never a good sign”. Finally, around 6pm, the surgeon, heart transplant specialist and specialist nurse descended.
They explained that Marcus’s heart had arrested five times. He was in intensive care with machines helping his heart and breathing. They had considered a transplant. If he got through the night there was the chance of neurological damage. His legs may need to be amputated.
Hollie could finally see her dad. She recalled: “He was lying there, machines breathing for him, tubes in his arteries. My dad was tiny in among them all. I took his hand and it was just limp. That was horrible, it made it very real.”
But Marcus got through the night. And the next one. And the wedding, which was being held 150 miles from Glasgow in the Cairngorms, was just a week away. Hollie said: “We took it day by day, but I thought I can’t do this without dad. I was daddy’s girl growing up. We started to think could we have a wedding in hospital. But time was too short to do this.”
Hollie, who is Marcus’s only child, had put her dad at the centre of her big day. “He was walking me down the aisle, he was going to give me away, we had planned a father and bride dance, I had got him special cufflinks to wear.”
Hollie agonised over whether or not to go ahead with the wedding. It was too late to move the ceremony at the hospital. And Marcus, despite being in intensive care and on morphine to manage his pain, thought he would still be heading north for the ceremony.
She recalled: “He was under the impression he was going to the wedding. He was totally gung ho. He said things like, I might be able to get out in a wheelchair.”
Eventually Hollie asked the surgeon to spell out to Marcus what would happen if he left the hospital. “He had to put it in black and white for him or he would find a loophole. He was very professional and kindly put it to Dad that if he travelled without the machines he was hooked up to, he would die.”
Marcus was crushed. “This was the only moment where it was too much for him. It was the only time I saw him cry. He was so stoic about everything then it was our wedding that broke him.”
Marcus said: “All I wanted to do was save my energy and get out of hospital so I wouldn’t miss Hollie’s wedding, and I think that is basically what saved me, but it got to the point where the surgeons said if you leave here, you will probably die.
“Holly said we’re not having that, and that she would rather have another 40 years of my terrible dad jokes than have me at the wedding.”
On the big day, Marcus was able to be part of Hollie’s wedding from his hospital bed.
The wedding went ahead with Marcus on FaceTime. He wore his kilt and cufflinks in his hospital bed and made a speech from his phone. He was still the first person to see Hollie’s dress, she made sure of that. That was the second time Hollie saw her dad cry.
After eight weeks Marcus got out of hospital and moved in with Hollie and Andrew in their flat in East Kilbride. He was at work in the new year. Hollie organised him a surprise 50th birthday party in February. Then, in May, Marcus saw her graduate. Her dad’s near-death experience makes every milestone extra precious: “You take nothing for granted when you thought you wouldn’t have those moments.”
Marcus added: “I’m on loads of meds and my heart will never be the same again but it’s better than being dead!
“The surgeons nicknamed me miracle man and later told me they thought I had a 15% chance of living, so I know I shouldn’t really be here.”
In November, the family is heading back up north for Hollie and Andrew’s first wedding anniversary. This time, Marcus will be with them.
Hollie said: “I will slip back into my wedding dress and he will get his kilt on. We haven’t printed our wedding album because I wanted the pictures with Dad. When I open the album I want the whole thing to be as if he was there in person.”
Before that, Hollie has training to do. To say thanks to the dedicated staff who saved her father’s life, Hollie is taking part in The Great Scottish Run next week OCTOBER 6 in aid of the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
Hollie said: “If it wasn’t for BHF and the research they do, my dad wouldn’t be here. His life would have ended on that operating table. It’s the hours of research, all the funding and how well people are trained that mean he’s still alive.
“It was so important to do something more than just say thank you.”
“I’m not a runner but I feel I have a purpose now. It’s not enjoyable when I’m knackered but it’s such an important thing to run for.
“When Dad was going through recovery he said, I’ll never run a marathon but I’m here and that’s what counts. So I’m running it for him.”
Marcus added: “I’m so proud that she’s decided to do this race for the BHF. If I had my way I’d race her, but I’ll be there on the day cheering her on.”
To donate go to https://ajbellgreatscottishrun2024.enthuse.com/pf/hollie-macphee
Heart facts
As we mark World Heart Day tomorrow (Sunday 29 Sept) it’s worth remembering that 50 people die every day in Scotland from a heart and circulatory disease.
There are an estimated 730,000 people living with heart and circulatory diseases in Scotland and 28% of all deaths in Scotland are caused by heart and circulatory diseases.
Cardiac arrest is a critical medical emergency, where the heart stops pumping blood around the body and unless treated immediately, it leads to death within minutes.
There are around 3,200 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Scotland each year and the survival rate in Scotland is less than 1 in 10.
Every minute without cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation reduces the chance of survival by up to 10 per cent so early CPR and defibrillation can more than double the chances of survival.
David McColgan, Head of BHF Scotland, said: “It is fantastic that Hollie has signed up to run the AJ Bell Great Scottish Run 10k to raise funds for the BHF in honour of her dad.
“Every penny she raises will go towards our lifesaving research which keeps families together for longer, and we’ll be cheering her on every step of the way.”
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