By XAVIER SMERDON
A WYNDHAM Councillor suffered a heart attack during a council meeting recently, and then drove home.
During the 24 June council meeting Cr Glenn Goodfellow felt strong pains in his chest but dismissed it as lingering back pain.
He bent over in pain but then continued to sit through the rest of the meeting, driving home completely unaware of what had really happened to him.
The next day he was hanging out the laundry when he felt similar pains, but this time he called an ambulance.
It was only when he was taken to the Geelong hospital and underwent tests that he discovered he had suffered from two minor heart attacks.
“I didn’t feel right earlier in the month and I went to the doctor but he just said I had some sort of virus that was lingering,” Mr Goodfellow said.
“My body was trying to tell me something and I guess I just dismissed it. I actually thought it was just the flu.”
Cr Goodfellow said he felt chest and back pain during the June 24 meeting.
He said he was now fully recovered but needed to take things a bit slower.
“If I’ve learned anything it’s that you have got to listen to your body,” he said.
“A lot of us blokes think we are invincible but we need to take a step back sometimes and think about what is important.”
Cr Goodfellow was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2003 and had his right kidney removed.
Four years ago he was also diagnosed with type II diabetes.
He encouraged other men to go for regular health check-ups.
