A WELL-KNOWN West Belfast man has encouraged other men to undergo screening for a devastating medical condition that almost claimed his life.

In January 2020, former political prisoner Jim McCann was hospitalised when the main blood vessel running from his heart through his chest and stomach ruptured.

The 71-year-old was, unbeknownst to him, suffering from an abdominal aortic aneurysm – a bulge or swelling of the aorta blood vessel.

Jim – known for his exposition of British Army use of CR Gas – was working as a loader at the black taxi rank in King Street when the medical emergency occurred. Only for the prompt intervention of his colleague Spud Murphy, Jim said he would have died.

“His quick thinking saved my life because the fatality rate is really high,” he revealed.

Jim described what happened to him as an “explosion in your body”.

After days of life-saving surgeries, he now lives without a spleen, colon or rectum, has just one operating kidney and “very little stomach”.

“Almost everything had to be taken away or bypassed,” Jim explained.

He said the rupture also “shredded” his left leg, which had to be amputated above the knee to save his life.

Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm is routinely offered to all men over the age of 65, but Jim said he dismissed the possibility of the condition affecting him.

“I’d seen the information about getting checked at 65 years of age and it’s not that I chose to ignore it, but I just said ‘That’ll never happen to me’,” he said.

“I have to live with the consequences. I’m pretty pragmatic about most things. I don’t fully understand what happened to me but I have to accept it. Sometimes I do think ‘Why didn’t I go and see a doctor for five minutes – just a simple test?’

“It’s not as if I didn’t know. It was somewhere in my subconscious, but I chose not to go.”

Jim now has to undergo dialysis three times a week for up to four hours at time, and is restricted to just 1200ml of liquid per day. He also has a catheter fitted to drain an infection that is impacting his stomach.

Since suffering an aneurysm he has been in hospital seven times, on one occasion fighting for his life due to sepsis. He has, however, learned to “take every day as it comes” and is “happy to be alive”.

In opening up about his medical issues, Jim hopes to save lives.

“It’s devastating in its effect and I’m just lucky enough to be one of the few who can deal with it, because there’s no going back,” he said.

“Go and see your doctor, it only takes ten minutes and it’s going to save you all of this.”