SIR - It came as a shock to find myself suffering a heart attack on Sunday, October 5 and, after all the bad publicity one hears about the NHS these days, I didn't really expect to survive.

I have nothing but the highest praise and respect for everyone who saved my life that night - from the ambulance paramedics, A&E doctors and nurses at Frenchay and the wingless angels who hovered over my bed checking all my vital signs and keeping me alive to the vigilant consultant and doctors who visited me (and the many others in the cardiac care unit) and arranged for me to be whisked to the BRI for an angiogram, angioplasty and stent.

Within 24 hours or so of collapsing at my home, my blocked artery had been prised open and, supported by a tiny bit of scaffolding and I was on my way to health again. Seven days after I was rushed in there, close to death, I walked out of Frenchay with a big bag of pills and clear instructions on how to build myself back to full health again. There is life after death and there is a tremendous spirit and expertise in our hospitals!

Why are we fighting wars far away, throwing away resources of money and lives, when there is such a crying need for financial support and more staffing in our marvellous hospital service? Frenchay is so deep in debt it could not afford a little printed circuit board to operate the spotlight above my bed - so nurses had to check my BP, pulse and temperature by torchlight.

They are so short of trained nurses, they are paying mature students £2.50 an hour to do 12-hour shifts alongside the trained staff. Such shocking revelations were enough to give one a heart attack! And yet they all carried on with their long hours (switching patients from bed to bed and in and out of the various wards because of space restrictions) with the skill, patience and unfailing kindness of the angels they surely are.

Our hospitals deserve our praise and our taxes. I'm so lucky to be alive today and I know they could save many more if the facilities they need were properly financed. Did you know there are only two angiogram machines in the whole of the

South-West and they are both at the BRI - treating 36 patients each a day, I believe, from Gloucester to Penzance.

Whilst writing, I must also pass on my deep thanks to all my wonderful friends, colleagues and neighbours who showered me with messages, cards, flowers, fruit, books, games and love throughout my stay - a truly heart-warming reaction to my sudden illness.

Sheila Alexander, Kingswood