A Singaporean man has credited his gradual 18kg weight loss over the last nine months for saving his life.

The man, Weber Oh, who is in his late 40s, had a close shave after suffering a heart attack in February 2021.

The tennis coach has since posted about his experience on Facebook on March 4 as he continues to recover.

High blood pressure and high cholesterol

According to Oh, he was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2016 and high cholesterol in 2019.

He decided to put more effort into working out and eating better after hearing about three of his tennis friends dying of heart disease in the last two years.

For the last nine months, Oh embarked on a change in lifestyle by partaking in healthy food, gym workouts, tennis and cycling, all in a bid to lose weight.

His efforts paid off.

Oh wrote that he lost 18kg in nine months and lowered his cholesterol level to normal.

His high blood pressure did improve but still remained within the unhealthy range.

Heart attack out of nowhere

Two weeks before this post, he was driving his father home for dinner when his heart acted up.

Oh wrote that he recognised the symptoms of a heart attack, having undergone the first aid and CPR course as a sports coach.

"Suddenly I felt my chest tightening and it spread all the way to my throat and jaw too," he wrote, "so I knew all the symptoms of a heart attack."

Oh was still lucid enough.

He dropped his father off, parked his car, and called his wife and told her he was off to the doctors, which was 100m away from his home.

At the clinic

When he told the clinic nurse he needed to see the doctor immediately, he was told to do his SafeEntry check-in and take a queue number.

Oh wrote: "Then I told her that my chest is very tight and I need to see the doctor NOW! She understood and ran to call the doctor."

"Immediately, doctor ordered me to do an ECG and the result was not good, I was having a heart attack."

Oh wrote that he could still call his wife to go to the clinic and the nurse called an ambulance, which arrived in seven minutes.

Off to the hospital

Within 10 minutes, Oh was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital where doctors were already waiting for him.

He was brought to the operating theatre in 20 minutes.

All of this occurred within an hour of his heart attack.

He wrote: "Doctor only found one blockage in my heart and did a balloon (no stent needed) to clear the blockage and now here I am still talking to you."

Close shave

Oh's procedure was a balloon pulmonary angioplasty, which uses balloons to open blood vessels that have been chronically narrowed or blocked.

Oh wrote: "After that doctor told me that my weight loss of 18kg in the last nine months saved my life!"

"Or else I might have died if I was still 90kg two weeks ago."

Oh added that his post was not to scare people but to encourage them to change their lifestyle to live longer.

Top photos via Weber Oh