Viagra Saved My Life ; And the Side-Effects Aren’t Bad Either, Says Man Told to Take Three Tablets a Day to Treat a Heart Condition

( DIAGNOSED with an incurable condition, Grant Crow was told by doctors that he had just three years to live.

Desperate to prolong his life, the father-of-three volunteered for a series of medical trials.

Doctors put him on a course of medication and told him to take one little blue tablet three times a day.

Mr Crow’s health rapidly began to improve along with his sex life.

For the tablets he had been prescribed for the life-threatening condition of pulmonary hypertension are better known as Viagra.

The first person in Europe to take the famous blue pills for something other than impotency, Mr Crow has hailed Viagra as a ‘ miracle drug’ that has saved his life and worked wonders for his marriage.

Mr Crow, 52, of Edinburgh, said: ‘I was so desperate to find a treatment that I would have swallowed anything. And, joking aside, it has saved my life.

‘I was told I had two years to live three years ago. But now my consultant tells me I can expect to live long enough to enjoy my retirement.’ Three years ago, Mr Crow noticed he was getting breathless climbing stairs and, more worryingly, that he was coughing up blood. Doctors diagnosed him with pulmonary hypertension, an incurable disease in which the blood pressure in the pulmonary artery carrying blood from the heart to the lungs rises to dangerous levels.

He immediately signed up to take part in any medical trials that might extend his life and later that year medical staff at Glasgow’s Western Infirmary turned him into a Viagra guinea pig.

While the results of the trial are not yet conclusive, Mr Crow says he is feeling much better. But he admits to his own surprise when he found out exactly what he was taking.

He said: ‘They called Viagra by its generic name of sildenafil and I didn’t know much about medicine, so at first it didn’t mean much to me.

‘But we soon worked out what I was on. It’s a fairly enjoyable side-effect.

I had such a grin on my face when I realised what I was taking.

‘Initially the side-effects were rather embarrassing, but it has certainly put a smile on my wife’s face.’ Mr Crow’s wife, Suzanne, said her husband did not tell her what drugs he was on at first. She added: ‘Grant waited to tell me, but I suppose I should have guessed. When he did tell me, I was surprised my first reaction was “isn’t that what they give old men who have been having problems?”

‘It has certainly improved our sex life because Grant had always been too ill before. Viagra really is a wonder drug, it has thrown us a huge lifeline.

His life expectancy has improved beyond belief.’ Jim Mearns, a clinical nurse at the Glasgow Western Infirmary’s Scottish Pulmonary Vascular Unit, said: ‘Viagra improves blood supply to the lungs and relieves symptoms such as extreme fatigue and breathlessness at rest or when in movement.

‘At the moment, it can only be prescribed by a consultant, but studies show it works really well and I expect it to get a licence soon.’

Factfile

MORE than 20million men have taken Viagra since clinical trials on the drug’s use in treating the heart condition angina in the 1980s revealed its surprising side-effect.

Manufacturers Pfizer have created a Pounds 1.5billion worldwide market in drugs combatting maleimpotance by relaxing the blood vessels.

Viagra is thought to have many other medical uses including treating the pregnancy disorder pre-eclampsia.

Scientists hope the drug may also be used in treating heart failure.

The drug has turned round the fortunes of Barceloneta in Puerto Rica. The town, which is now home to a Viagra factory, was formerly know only for its pineapples, but now boasts a gleamingshopping mall.