When he fell ill, avid birdwatchers Gord McNulty and wife Angie knew that his condition was serious enough to cancel a much-anticipated ornithologist’s convention.
Gord was in and out of hospital for weeks as doctors searched for answers. “My condition deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t walk,” Gord recalls. Released with medication for suspected Parkinson’s, he returned four days later.
A journalist for nearly forty years, Gord knows that facts matter. It was second nature to push for answers.
Rather than the suspected Parkinson’s, Stiff Person Syndrome or cancer diagnoses, a high fever and brain bleed revealed endocarditis – a rare, potentially fatal infection of the inner lining (endocardium) of the heart’s chambers and valves.
Gord was transferred to Hamilton General Hospital for life-saving surgery. The affected mitral valve was successfully replaced with a pig’s valve. Forty-seven days later, Gord finally returned home.
He and Angie are grateful for the research that saved his life: “Our monthly donation is a wonderful investment – but leaving a gift to Heart & Stroke in our Wills will help ensure a sound future for the Foundation, and for generations to come.”
- Learn how you can leave a life-saving gift in your Will
