Timmins ER physician shares his heart attack experience to help others

Chris Loreto is an emergency room physician who says he only realised his heart troubles thanks to treating a patient with the same symptoms.

Doctor Chris Loreto said he’s lucky – he’s a heart attack survivor.

The Timmins and District Hospital emergency room physician believes he was in denial about some of the symptoms he experienced while out for a run in his neighbourhood last summer.

“There’s one house – it’s about a kilometer from my home – and I would start feeling the discomfort in my chest and in my throat about halfway, but it would peak at this house and I didn’t stop. I would keep on running, but I would scream to help lessen the pain and sometimes I punch myself in the chest to lessen the pain,” said Loreto.

In November, the doctor was treating a patient when he realised he had the same symptoms the man was experiencing.

“When I was speaking with his wife, you know, he was having the exact same symptoms I was having and what he thought was acid reflux and taking his antacid for the exact same thing I was doing,” said Loreto.

“When he said those words – it dawned on me that his symptoms were my symptoms that I chose to ignore.”

Loreto’s father passed away from heart failure at 59 and Loreto told CTV News that thinks his dad may have been sending him a sign when he was scheduled for his angiogram.

“It was his birthday, you know, so, yeah, I mean, other people might not believe it,” he said.

“It was my father slapping me in the head going: ‘Stupid, you didn’t listen when you’re young and you don’t listen now’, so, that I truly believe.”

Loreto was diagnosed with triple vessel coronary artery disease and now has two stents.

He said he is sharing his story with the hope of helping others not to disregard chest pain.

“Well it’s reached a lot of people. You know, people have stopped and spoken to me – complete stranger,” said Loreto.

“So it’s done something and so for that, at least, I’m grateful.”

Loreto’s next checkup is in a few weeks and if all is well, he’s hoping to return to work in the spring, knowing he’ll have even more empathy for patients coming into ER with concerns about chest pain.