Peter Wood, 53, was admitted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, at the beginning of May after experiencing night sweats, fatigue and general aches in his back and limps.
The gardener, who works at One Garden Brighton, had previously been to the GP in April, where he was sent for further tests and referred on to more specialist services.
During an urgent outpatient appointment, Mr Wood was diagnosed with an infective endocarditis – a serious infection of the heart – and was told he needed open heart surgery.
If the condition had been left untreated, it could have been fatal.
He explained: “It was all very unexpected. I was going into hospital under the impression that it was probably something to do with my veins, but then to be told I actually have disease on my heart. It was a shock.
“The only good thing is it all happened so quickly, I didn’t have any time to dwell on it.”
Mr Wood underwent the operation only two weeks later, which he said was a success and is now working on recovery.
He explained how after the procedure the consultant surgeon remarked that the infection had caused more damage than they had initially expected and if it had been left any longer, it would have required more extensive repairs to the heart.
Mr Wood expressed his huge gratitude for the support of doctors and nurses at the Royal Sussex, describing how they “made it from a terrifying experience to an amazing one”.
He said: “It’s often taken for granted the amazing job these people are doing day to day. They are saving lives every single day and sometimes they don’t even acknowledge it, because it’s just their jobs. They kept my positivity high and my chipper up.”
Mr Wood told The Argus that recovering is going “really well” and is continuing to take medication, with the hope to be back to working soon.
He encouraged others to recognise the work done by the NHS and how fortunate we are to have free health care – noting how his procedure would have cost in excess of £47,000 if he had paid for it.
Mr Wood said: “Moving through the generations, those people have gone from not having the NHS to having this amazing service. But, those generations are rapidly dying out and people are beginning to not realise there was time we did not have this amazing group of people which are dedicated to saving lives on a day to day basis.”