James Taylor gives an insight into his tragic heart attack

The 26-year-old had to immediately retire from the game for England because of his illness.

James Taylor pic credit The Telegraph

James Taylor, the former England player, has come out and detailed in his book about the tragic heart attack and illness that forced him to announce a premature retirement at the age of 26. The horrifying events in his life and his undiagnosed heart condition turned his life upside down. 

Taylor was a bright young English batsman and better than many have been at his age for the three lions. 

Taylor in his book has written, "I turned to my teammate Brendan Taylor. 'My ticker’s f----d,' I told him. 'My ticker’s f----d', I walked off to the changing rooms. My heart was now going what felt a million miles an hour. I could actually see my chest moving, my skin expanding and contracting, fit to burst. It looked so unnatural. It made me feel sick to see it"

"I was gasping for air, sucking it in. I was feeling so, so sick. I made it into the toilet and stuck my head in the pan, desperately trying to vomit. Nothing would come. Nottinghamshire physio Jon Alty dragged me out. It hadn’t been flushed and was no place for anyone to be putting their face"

"I was trying to tell him about my heart but I could barely breathe. I just wanted to pass out. That would be a way of escaping it. I really did think I was on the way out."

Sadly for our sport, he had to write words like, "Just a few weeks earlier, I'd been scoring runs and taking miracle catches for England in South Africa. Now I was a hunched, grey, hollow figure on the verge of death," 

Further in the book is written the account of what happens at the time as Taylor writes, "By 4 pm, I was feeling progressively worse and getting pains down my left arm. Looking back, it's obvious – it's the sign of a heart attack. I shouldn't have been alive at that stage. With my body concentrating all it had on my vital organs, my stomach was already giving up. The sound it made was like nothing you’ll ever hear. A cavalcade of beeps, fast ricocheting around the room. It was the sound of my heart, charging, careering, thundering. A runaway train trapped within my ribs," 

 

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"The machine said it was pounding at 265 beats a minute. The doctors looked at one another. Strangely, it’s the little things you notice at a time like that, and the expression on their faces – shock, disbelief – is something I won’t forget"

"When the heart is under stress it releases an enzyme called troponin. Under no stress, the amount of troponin in the blood would be zero. My level was 42,000. My sheer fitness had saved me. Anyone else wouldn't have had a chance,"

"The day, my heart, the future – there were so many unanswered questions, so much to deal with. It was the first time I'd ever felt real fear – raw, unbridled fear."

 

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(Inputs from Cricket.com.au)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 19 May, 2018

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