For Canberrans, a serious heart problem used to mean a mandatory medical trip to Sydney and often an extended stay interstate.
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Many of the small team that helped change that gathered around a giant heart-shaped cake complete with blood and valves on Tuesday to mark the 40th anniversary of the capital's first dedicated cardiac unit.
Dr David Coles founded the unit at the Woden Valley Hospital, now The Canberra Hospital, aged 32.
"It meant better diagnostics, better ability to sort out more complex problems without people having to go interstate," he said.
"It was providing care which was the standard for that era."
Dr Coles, the sole cardiologist for the unit's first 12 years, said the foundation process was fraught with planning and construction problems. He praised the work of the nurses and was joined on Tuesday by some of the ten-strong original cohort, among a crowd of the unit's modern generation of lifesavers.
This year the unit employs nine cardiologists and 35 nursing staff, and there were more than 3000 cardiology admissions in the 10 months to April 30.
Bob Fletcher, 77, arrived in Canberra in 1974 but the former soccer player, coach and referee managed to stay clear of a cardiac unit until a heart murmur three years ago.
"It was diagnosed as a leaking aortic valve and it was getting progressively worse," he said.
"The first thing that I thought was that I might have to go to Sydney – it would have been stressful," he said.
Instead, he had a complete valve replacement in the hospital's cardiac unit in December 2012.
"The care was nothing but first class," he said.
The scare gave the Rivett resident "a new outlook" and he has since embraced more regular exercise – including leading a Heart Support Australia walking group – and a healthier diet.
Dr Coles, who retired in 2012, said thanks to the introduction of stenting and the start, in 1999, of cardiothoracic surgery at The Canberra Hospital, the heart attack treatmentCanberrans received was "up with the best standards of the Western world".
"The rest of the developments have been incremental, but the big jump up was when we started using stenting."
In 1975, Royal Canberra Hospital, demolished in 1997, had a cardiac unit that also cared for non-cardiac patients, but Woden Valley became the city's home of heart management initiatives, Dr Coles said.
The Heart Foundation ACT has described heart disease as the biggest killer of men and women in the territory, but the ACT has the best heart attack survival rate in the nation.
