Bodybuilder Neil Andrews suffered life-threatening heart failure after a routine dental procedure, in a case that highlights the hidden health risks athletes can face.

By Gary Chappell

HOLDING his mobile phone in front of him, Neil Andrews fought back the tears as he tentatively pressed record.

He was making a video for his then 12-year-old daughter to tell her he was in heart failure due to endocarditis and that it was unlikely he would survive emergency surgery.

The reason she never got to watch it is one of the most incredible stories you are likely to hear.

Fast forward two years and this month Andrews will be trying to win the PCA British Championships. He will be shredded to the bone and in perhaps the best physical shape of his life.

It is a turnaround like no other. but his journey continues to be paved with danger.

How a dental procedure led to heart failure

When Andrews cut his forearm while shaving body hair for a competition this year, the nick caused by the blade did not stop bleeding for a week. But that is what happens when you need to take 15mg of the blood-thinning drug Warfarin every day, to ensure the £14,000 mechanical heart valve that is keeping you alive does not fail due to clots forming.

All this and more because two years previous he had made a visit to the dentist for a routine scale and polish.

The story in between those two dates from March 2022 to September 2024 has been well documented but remains astonishing.

It includes having a wire stitched into the lining of his heart pulled down through his body and out of his abdomen. "It felt like I was being gutted like a fish," said Andrews. "I was screaming in pain."

And it included being told by a doctor that his heart valve had been eaten away by oral bacteria that had entered his blood stream from his gum and that he had already defied logic by still being alive.

"A few weeks after I came out of hospital, the dentist rang me," explains Andrews. "They said, 'Hi Neil, we heard about what happened to you. You have another dentist appointment next week, are you able to make it'?

There was no case to answer

"I explored my options about suing them but it seems there was no case to answer."

Within hours of that dental appointment, bacteria had already gushed into Andrews' bloodstream via a cut in his gum and was on its way to causing heart failure.

No case to answer.

He was forced to spend most of his three months in hospital alone because of rules by the Government surrounding the inflated risk of Covid, which has a survival rate of 99.97 per cent. He was all alone in his hospital bed when being told to "get your affairs in order".

No case to answer.

After being referred to hospital by his GP following bouts of shivering and breathlessness, Andrews was initially sent home with paracetamol. This after having several scans and three attempts at a lumbar puncture that showed nothing untoward, let alone any indication of heart failure.

He said: "It takes me about 15 minutes to get home from the hospital. As soon as I got in I received a phone call from them. They said, 'you need to come back right away, we have found bacteria in your blood'.

At this stage there was still uncertainty from the doctors about what the specific issue was and still no indication of heart failure. "They did an echocardiogram [a medical imaging technique using ultrasound to create a picture of the heart]. And found vegetation the size of your thumb growing on my heart valve.

"By this point I was in ITU [Intensive Therapy Unit] being pumped with fentanyl and morphine."

Get your affairs in order, you may not survive surgery

He continued: "That evening, I had seven doctors at the end of my bed. One of them said: "Look, we do not know how you are alive. You've been in acute heart failure for two weeks. Probably because you are a bodybuilder, you are more fit and stronger than most. But you need urgent surgery to fit a mechanical heart valve as yours has been eaten away. We need to do something in the next eight hours or you're not going to be here. My advice is to get your affairs in order now.

"I broke down several times. All the way down to surgery the next morning I just kept thinking, 'well, this is it then'. I had no idea whether I going to wake up."

Andrews had his sternum sawed through and his chest cracked wide open in order for the surgery on his heart to begin.

"They collapsed both of my lungs and had to push them out of the way. Then they filled my heart with potassium and stopped it from beating. Then I was put on a bypass machine."

Surgery to clear the valve and fit a mechanical one took six hours. He was put into an induced coma in which he stayed for roughly two days.

"When I came round the first thing I thought was – 'Oh my God, I'm alive'.

Cue another outpouring of sheer emotion. Tears cascading down his cheeks and on to his heavily bruised and swollen chest, his body peppered with wires and tubes.

I was suffering from anxiety and having hallucinations

At this stage, the light of recovery seemed so dim at the end of the tunnel it was almost non-existent. "I couldn't sleep because I couldn't lie in the hospital bed," he says. "I had to sit in the chair next to the bed and was so sleep deprived I ended up hallucinating.

"At one point I could see my father offering me a cup of tea. And there I was reaching out to take it and of course no one was there. I was having bad anxiety because there was just so much going on that I wasn't used to."

Andrews had a PICC [peripherally inserted central catheter] in his bicep. This connected to his heart in order to administer antibiotics. These were given every four hours for three months.

He was a shell of his former self. Twenty kilograms of weight had fallen off his 5ft 11in frame. He could barely walk a few feet without needing oxygen.

Three days after surgery he was wheeled down to the hospital's main entrance to a coffee shop. Here, he finally embraced his father. Andrews says: "I was crying my eyes out again. I can't remember how many times I did that.

"It was here when I was told that, when they put the tube down my throat during surgery, I aspirated everywhere. This means water came spilling out. I had two litres of water in my lungs. Normally when that happens the patient does not survive."

How Andrews defied the odds remains a mystery. But his outlook on life now has changed.

I thought I'd never return to bodybuilding after heart failure

"At one point I did think that was it for bodybuilding," he says. "And certainly no more anabolic steroid use. But eventually you realise you do want to get back into it. Although I never use much anabolic steroids any more, not that I ever did.

"I only use 200mg of testosterone cypionate – and it is pharmaceutical grade. I will never use any UGL [underground labs] because it is not sterile. You do not know how or where it is made. And for me, I cannot take that risk of having another bacterial infection.

"When I got out of hospital I was told no upper body training for three months. I wasn't even allowed to carry the shopping or drive a car. I was back in the gym when I could, though, just to do hamstrings and quads. When I began upper training, I could not even lift 2.5kg for a side lateral raise."

Considering his story, it is amazing how, even at 44 years old, Andrews became overall champion at the 2Bros RL Coaching Cup. And he did it with one of the most conditioned physiques they had seen in a long time.

"I know exactly how to peak my body," says Andrews. "Next I will be doing the PCA Staffordshire on October 13, then the PCA British Finals on the 20th. I have never won a British title and that is the one I want. My son is due to born about a week later."

How fitting would it be if that healthy and thriving baby boy came into the world, opened his eyes and looked up at his dad as a British champion...

... and one hell of a fighter.

*Neil Andrews is sponsored by Strom and the original interview he did with Rick Foster can be listened to by clicking here.

MORE FROM FRONTDOUBLE:

BODYBUILDING RESULTS

ATHLETE PROFILES

HEALTH AND EDUCATION HUB

Bodybuilding and heart health: A serious warning for competitors