Heart Attack Put NI First Minister Robinson In Hospital, Has Been Released

Heart attack sufferer Peter Robinson has been released from Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH).

The BBC is reporting that Robinson, head of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), was taken to the hospital last week after suffering from a heart attack.

Speaking at the Irish Open only a day after being released from the RVH, Robinson blamed his diet and lack of exercise for his heart attack, and not the stress of his job as First Minister of Northern Ireland.

“I blame myself and nobody else but myself. The last emails that I was sending were at about four minutes to four in the morning and my men were timed to come at 7.30 to pick me up on that Monday morning, even though it was a bank holiday,” he said.

“If you looked at my diet you would cringe – it’s all around snacking and fast foods and all the things that you shouldn’t do.

“Exercise? You’re picked up from the door and dropped at the door, so it’s all the worst lifestyle things.” Robinson says he is feeling fine now after his heart attack.

According to Robinson, the RVH cardiac team implanted three stents into his veins to reopen those veins, plus performed an unannounced procedure during the four days Robinson was interred at the hospital after his heart attack.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, Robinson was visited by many political dignitaries while in the hospital after his heart attack, including England’s Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who brought Robinson a bowl of fruit, and Finance Minister Arlene Foster, among many others.

Robinson has just recently taken to bicycle riding to get exercise, but became extremely winded after only a few meters. It was just three days later that he had his heart attack.

The whole situation began with a bike ride that Robinson took with party member Sammy Douglass. On the first weekend, all went well. The second weekend, however, Robinson had to stop twice, both times complaining of tiredness and some chest discomfort, which is a possible indication of a heart attack.

“Last Saturday he had to stop twice,” Douglass said. “I thought at the time he was just tired and he said he had a spot of indigestion, soreness around the chest or stomach it sounded like. But he was in the best of humour.”

Soon after, Robinson checked himself into the Ulster hospital near his home in Dundonald. Upon further examination, doctors discovered he was suffering a heart attack, and was immediately transferred to the specialized cardiac unit at the RVH.

[Image courtesy of the BBC]