"I was 40 years old when I nearly died on the trading floor"
I no longer work in banking or financial services, but I would like to share this cautionary tale with all who do.
When I was in my 40s, I was a very successful equities broker and was one of the most senior people on the trading floor of a bank in South America. I hadn't had any previous health issues and was living the sort of existence that was then typical of a successful broker: I was out most nights and I was working long hours during the days.
I was working and I was playing hard.
We were completing a major transaction in which we were selling an entire area of the bank, when a peculiar thing happened. I was talking to our CFO who was sitting in front of me when I started to feel very strange. I could see from her face that there was a problem, but somehow I was unable to process what was happening. There was no pain, but I knew that something was badly wrong and that I needed to get to hospital as soon as possible.
The CFO agreed to drive me. I was able to walk to the car. When I arrived at the hospital, I was slurring my words and they correctly thought I was having a stroke. However, it took several days of tests to discover the source of the issue. It required the insertion of a camera down my throat and some electric shocks to stress my heart. In this way, they found out that when I became highly stressed, a crack appeared in the side of my heart. This enabled so-called "dirty blood" to mix with the blood that was heading to my brain. And because that blood contained clots, it caused the stroke.
I survived. I took several weeks off work and underwent an operation in which something akin to a small umbrella was inserted through the wall of my heart to prevent the crack from opening in the future. It was a common process in America, but not in South America at that time. The doctor who performed my surgery had only done the same operation twice before.
When I recovered, I went back to the bank and completed the transaction. But once the transaction was finished, I left my job. I came to realize that when the incident happened, I was extremely stressed out. I also realized that there were other things that I could do.
Initially, though, I did nothing at all. As time passed, I became bored and people started calling me for advice. Initially, I did some consulting. Today, I run a mining company and a farm. It could have been very different. Make a change before you're forced to.
Martin Palmer is a pseudonym
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available (Telegram: @SarahButcher)
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)
