Lucky to be alive! SUZANNE'S SECOND CHANCE AT LIFE

The country star's frightening heart attack was a wake-up call

- Fleur Guthrie

When Suzanne Prentice's husband Steve walked through the W doors of Southland Hospital to visit his wife, a "code blue" alarm was ringing out, indicating a patient was in cardiac arrest.

Doctors ran into the emergency room from all directions, but Steve, 69, didn't realise it was Suzanne they were running to.

"My daughter Andrea works within the hospital too, so she could also hear this code blue happening and of course, it was me," recalls the 64-year-old entertainer.

"It was very traumatic for them - not so much for me, I was out of it!"

When the Weekly chats to Suzanne down the line at her Invercargill home, it's been a year since the eventful day, when a heart attack put her in hospital.

Sharing her experience as part of the Heart Foundation's Big Heart Appeal, Suzanne reveals it was nothing like what heart attacks on TV might have you expect - no clutching of the chest or gasping for breath. And there were no warning signs in the days leading up to it.

"That's the thing that surprised me the most," she tells. "I've always been prone to vasovagal attacks [a sudden drop in heart rate and blood pressure, leading to fainting], but January 19, 2022 was a perfectly normal day.

"I'd just got home from a meeting, I had dinner and all of a sudden I started to get this pain in my neck. So I said to Steve, 'Can you come and have a look at this?"