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George Daniels - My struggles to resolve my heart problems (68/85)

1,584 views · Published 12 July 2017 · 2:57 · Indexed 1 November 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Science & Technology

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English watch-maker George Daniels (1926-2011) was most famous for creating the co-axial escarpment and could make a complete watch by hand.  In his lifetime, he received many awards, including the rarely-given Gold Medal of the Clockmakers' Company of London. [Listener: Roger Smith; date recorded: 2003]

TRANSCRIPT: I had a bypass... a double bypass. It's quite a common thing now, in fact I believe it's very fashionable. And I didn't know that I needed one. I didn't have any inconvenience. I first noticed that I was a bit wobbly in America once, but then I'd been flying for all those hours and I was rather tired. I remember when I got back to England they thought I must have this bypass so I had the bypass and it takes some weeks to get over it, but I didn't improve and after a couple of months had gone by, I began to deteriorate and I went back and it was discovered that they'd made a mess of it and they hadn't completed the job properly. And so it had to be done again, and I really did feel very low, for the first time in my life. I felt despondent after that second thing and my doctors on the Isle of Man weren't very pleased with me for going to London to have this operation done without consulting them, but, of course, I couldn't consult because I was in America and they weren't on the island when I was. They didn't take that into consideration, but they obviously felt a bit peeved about it all. So I didn't get any attention from them, and in the end my friends came round and produced food for me. I had nothing to eat, and I couldn't get out of bed. I suppose I should have been in the hospital really, but they're very masochistic in the Isle of Man and they don't go in a lot for comfort, like going to bed when you're ill. In fact the more ill you are, the more they seem to want to keep you on your feet. I suppose they think it strengthens your character if it doesn't do your frame any good.

So we progressed through these things and then suddenly it was decided that I had a cardiac problem with atrial fibrillation and it's taken me seven years to get through that and I feel pretty good now, mainly because I insisted on having a particular operation, which I knew... I'd been told would be beneficial but for some extraordinary reason in the United Kingdom it's very difficult to get any medical treatment. There's a lot of talk goes on and a lot of money changes hands, especially from the patient, but not much success. However, I have now had this operation and it seems to have made quite a bit of difference, so I'm hoping now to get back to the bench and get in a few more thousand hours of solid grafting to try and do something intelligent.

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