Artist Graham Baker with the painting he’s gifted to
Tauranga Hospital’s Coronary Care Unit in recognition
of the care he received after having a heart attack last
year. Pictured left to right: Clinical Physiologist Michelle
Bayles, Cardiology Clinical Nurse Manager Jason
Money, Graham and CCU Clinical Nurse Manager
Chris Southerwood.
Award winning artist gifts painting
to hospital after heart attack
When Tauranga artist Graham Baker started
feeling tired and taking regular afternoon naps,
he thought it was just a part of getting older.
Then pains in his chest that felt like a bad case of indigestion saw
him off to Tauranga Hospital. Little did he know at that stage, that
he was having a heart attack.
“You hear people talking about the tell-tale warning signs of a
heart attack, things like pains in your arm or out of breath. I didn’t
feel any of that. It felt like I had a lump of ice in my chest.”
What followed was a series of tests leading to the life-saving heart
procedure performed in the hospital’s Cardiac Catheterisation
Laboratory (Cath Lab). A stent was inserted via a tube threaded
through a blood vessel in his arm, restoring the blood supply to his
heart.
The procedure happened on a Wednesday, Graham was home
two days later.
As you’d expect, he came into contact with many hospital staff
during his experience. “I asked my wife to write down the names of
staff so we could somehow thank them later but we lost track.”
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“It felt like Doctor Hassan Fahmi in the Cardiology team was with
me every step of the way. He explained things in a manner I could
understand and really put me at ease.
“I remember one of the nurses in the morning shift asking me if I
wanted something to eat and making me marmite on toast, what
a treat. I found out later that she’d used her own bread she had
brought in for morning tea.”
Graham says it was instances like that, which made him feel so
well cared for and he wanted to show his gratitude in some way.
So he got in touch with the Coronary Care team and sent them
sketches and paintings for subject approval.
The oil landscape of Mount Maunganui took about six months to
complete and now hangs in pride of place in the Coronary Care
Unit (CCU).
“The painting is just a small way of showing our gratitude to the
staff of the Coronary Care Unit. I hope it does its job, to take the
viewer to another place and time where they might get a little
respite.”