Critical Illness – A real story

Hey everyone, 

I’m sure everyone knows the story of what happened to me on January 13th of last year. I had a massive heart attack while playing hockey and I’m very lucky to be around today. I had no warning or notice (I played the entire game without issue until there was 6 minutes left) – that day, and the days leading up to this event I felt great and energized. This literally happened with no symptoms. In fact, I was told that had I had a battery of tests done the day it occurred there would have been no signs that would have alert the doctors. Fortunately, the response of my teammates and the knowledge and know-how of the ‘Capital Health’ hockey team saved my life.

I struggled a bit with sending this email to everyone. But I think it’s most important that I say a few things to you about what I’ve learned. Ultimately, I want to make you aware of the options that are available to protect you should a tragedy strike you and/or your family. My intent is providing you with the knowledge you may need to avoid any financial or emotional stresses that accompany a situation like mine.

First off, life can literally change (or end) in an instant. People die in accidents; cancer strikes ‘healthy’ people and heart attack and stroke can hit without warning. So do yourself a favor, be prepared by living life as healthy as you can today, do the things you enjoy, with the people you love. We don’t control how long we are here; but we do have some control over the things we do while we are here.

I can tell you first hand that you really do think of your kids when something like this happens. For me, it wasn’t about wanting to go back in time to change things we had done together, it was more about wanting to be there in the future to help them with decisions, teach them lessons, protect them from mistakes and to be there as someone they could count on as they go through life.

There’s no denying that the heart attack had an immediate effect on my life. I had to shut things down at work for a month, I wasn’t allowed to drive a car, I was tired and I couldn’t handle a full work load. Within about 6 weeks, I was feeling pretty ‘normal’ again and I at least felt optimistic that I’d recover well. I’m very fortunate. I’ve been back to the gym, I have permission to run and do the things I have always done and expect soon to be cleared to play hockey again, if I choose.

The other thing that helped me considerably was that I owned some ‘Critical Illness’ insurance – this allowed me to take my time getting back to work and to continue to recover without the financial pressures that come with being off work for an extended period. Many of you probably have disability insurance coverage through work or an individual plan, however, disability insurance plans are not the same as a critical illness plan. Disability insurance doesn’t usually begin until you’ve been off work for 3-4 months. For me, I wasn’t going to be ‘totally’ disabled and unable to work, but my ability to work a full week was affected considerably. Critical Illness insurance doesn’t require you to be off work at all, rather, it pays out upon the diagnosis and survival of a critical illness or condition i.e. heart attack, stroke or most forms of cancer. In fact, our plan covers up to 25 illnesses.
Without the critical illness coverage, I would have been under a great deal of pressure to get back to work and earn a pay cheque. As you can imagine, additional stress following a heart attack is not what the doctors want to see during your recovery, and your recovery can be prolonged if you do not get the required rest by going back to work.
I knew about Critical Illness insurance because I sell it. Fortunately, I bought some to help protect me during an event like this – never really expecting I’d need it. It was ‘critical’ in my recovery and in me getting back to being me again. Everyone should look into Critical Illness insurance; whether it’s to help protect you and/or family. The amount of coverage, the plan design and the cost of the coverage can be tailored to fit most needs. I strongly believe we should all have some amount of critical illness coverage to help us with unexpected health emergencies. You can also structure the plan so that if you don’t have a critical illness claim, then the premiums you paid can be returned to you at a specified date later in life.

I just want you to consider the following statistics;

• One in two men and one in three women are predicted to develop heart disease in their lifetime1
• One in 2.44 men and one in 3.41 women living in Canada will develop cancer in their lifetime2
• 86% of hospitalized heart attack patients survive3
• 80% of stroke patients survive the initial event4

The numbers can be pretty convincing.

Thanks for taking the time to read about my experience. As my doctor told me, I’m “unlucky that this happened, but very lucky in how it turned out”. That includes the people who helped me in my emergency, the close friends and family who were there for me in my recovery, and the things I did before any of this occurred, including purchasing some critical illness insurance to protect me in the event of something like this.

I wrote this because I don’t ever want to have a friend or family member have a health crisis like I did, but more importantly I don’t want them to be unaware that there are some products out there to help with their financial security if they were to experience a sudden health crisis. 

Please call me (229-6510 cell or 422-1631 ext 281 office) or email me (edhickey@equisgroup.ca*) if you want to find out more about critical illness for you.  I also encourage you to forward this on to other people in your life who are important to you.

Sincerely,

Ed Hickey, MBA, CFP
Certified Financial Planner
EQUIS Financial Group

Source:
¹Heart & Stroke Foundation, 2006
²Canadian Cancer Society’s Steering Committee on Cancer Statistic, 2011
³Heart & Stroke Foundation, Jan 2003
⁴Heath Care in Canada, Statistic Canada, 2002

* The use of e-mail is not a secure medium and personal information should be transmitted by more secure
means.