Helston man's death prompts health check call (From Falmouth Packet)

Helston man's death prompts health check call

4:31pm Thursday 3rd December 2009

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A Helston woman has called for more people to be screened for a hereditary heart condition after her 24-year-old son died suddenly.

Andy Buchan, a care worker at Trengrouse House, died after he collapsed running down Oates Road on his way back to work after he went to get tobacco from Tesco on August 1.

A post-mortem found that Mr Buchan, who lived in Rose Cottages, had died from a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy – where the heart becomes thickened – and since his death his mother Lindy has found she also has the condition.

Speaking before her son’s inquest at Truro City Hall on Wednesday, Lindy Buchan said: “Both my mother and her brother had died in their early 50s of cardiomyopathy. But at no point had I been told that cardiomyopathy is an inherited heart condition.

“After Andrew’s death I persuaded my GP to send me for a chest x-ray which showed that my heart was enlarged. As a result of this I was referred to a cardiologist who gave me a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy.”

See a full report of the inquest inside next week's Packet.

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