Twelve weeks ago, ABC Radio Brisbane Evenings presenter Kelly Higgins-Devine was in hospital waiting for major, life-giving heart surgery. She awoke with a new heart, new scars, and a new outlook on life. On Monday September 5, Higgins-Devine returned to radio.

“I have these scars which I wear with pride now, and they’ve given me decades to live,” she said.

It all began simply enough earlier this year, with Higgins-Devine feeling a little short of breath and having some steady pain in her chest.

A visit to her doctor and suddenly she was in for a battalion of tests, and the unexpected news that her heart was failing, and failing fast.

Suddenly, she was faced with a double bypass with one artery 70 per cent blocked and another 90 per cent.

Cardiovascular disease is a leading killer in Australia, affecting more than 4 million people and causing one in four deaths, according to the Heart Foundation statistics.

On average, 118 Australians die from cardiovascular disease — the umbrella term for heart conditions — per day.

Higgins-Devine says she was lucky; many women don’t have any symptoms of heart failure, or simply have an aching shoulder, or feelings easily dismissed as stress and tiredness.

But her family history of cardiovascular disease meant she took the signs seriously.

“I’d have had a heart attack and died, probably within the next twelve months,” Higgins-Devine said.

“It was that or a stroke. In a different country with no access to good healthcare, in a different era, I’d just have died.

“I’m eternally grateful, and that’s how I went into it — just grateful that I have this extra time and that I took it seriously, that chest pain.”

On the other side of the operating table, Higgins-Devine said with the support of daughter Mackenzie and husband Craig, she healed steadily and well.

“[Craig is] one of those blokes that would never tell you how worried he was, if you know what I mean,” Higgins-Devine said.

“But the first person I saw after I woke up after the procedure was Craig, standing there and he was holding my hand.”

Twelve weeks away from her evenings show on ABC Radio Brisbane gave Higgins-Devine plenty of time to think about the decades she now has ahead, with a fresh heart.

“I’ve got two messages, one from Craig and one from Mackenzie, on my phone … the night before going in that were just so beautiful.

“And that cemented for me that relationships are everything.

“They’re the things you should spend your time on, and your energy. That’s what I learned.”

(Story courtesy of ABC News)