- author, Angie Brown
- role, Edinburgh/East Scotland correspondent, BBC Scotland
When Darren Peaty decided to revive a 200-year-old salt mining industry in his Fife coastal village, he was “genuinely afraid of failure”.
The father-of-two bought £300,000 worth of equipment, including huge salt pans, and rented a factory in the village of St Monans, East Neuk.
The 41-year-old had put everything into his dream, working all day and sleeping in the factory to monitor all the dials and gauges that monitored pressure and brine levels.
But Darren’s demanding work schedule and factory conditions took a toll on his health.
After surviving for months on 20-minute naps on the factory floor, his heart began to race and he felt short of breath and dizzy.
He was taken by ambulance to hospital, where he was told he had a heart condition called atrial fibrillation, which causes the heart to beat in an irregular, very fast rhythm.
Darren was told that the 45 degree heat and extremely salty air inside the factory was damaging his heart, but after being given three bags of intravenous fluids he returned to work.
The intense heat and high salt content in the air left Darren feeling dehydrated and he repeatedly experienced symptoms that made his heart “feel like it was going crazy.”
The second time he was taken to hospital, doctors took his blood and said, “It was like he’d been in the desert for a month.”
Darren was given three more bags of fluids and his heart began beating normally again.
“He released me, but I didn’t study, I continued to work in factories and sleep overnight,” he said.
He was rushed to hospital a third time.
“I felt dizzy and short of breath and thought I was going to die,” he said.
“I thought, ‘That’s it,’ but then I got a big order for custom whiskey sea salt.”
“A company was expecting a big order from America, so I went to the hospital and said, ‘You’re OK, just keep me hydrated and I won’t bother you.’
“She took my blood and said, ‘Okay, let’s start you off with seven bags of fluids.’
“The worst pain ever”
Twelve hours later, his heart was still beating rapidly.
Darren said he was given medication that acts directly on heart tissue to slow nerve impulses and keep his heart rhythm normal.
“It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt,” he said. “All my veins turned black and the next thing I knew I was unconscious. Basically, it gave me energy.”
“I finally got back into a normal rhythm and said, ‘Right, I’ve got to get back because I’ve got work to do.’
“My cardiologist called me in and said, ‘Do you know how lucky you are? You should never have to leave here.'”
Darren now takes daily medication to treat a serious, potentially fatal, arrhythmia.
Surgeons are planning a catheter ablation procedure, in which they guide tubes into the heart to destroy tiny pieces of tissue that may be causing the arrhythmia.
“Doctors said that dehydration had changed the structure of the heart’s electrical signals,” he said.
“That was because I was sleeping in a factory where it was hot and muggy and I was breathing in the sea air.
“I would wake up in the morning feeling like I was in the desert and I would immediately run to the tap to get a drink of water.”
Ruth Goss, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said severe dehydration could lead to heart and circulatory problems.
“When you’re dehydrated, you have less blood circulating through your body,” she says.
“This can cause low blood pressure, dizziness and fainting.
“In response, your heart starts beating faster to circulate blood around your body, which can lead to palpitations.
“Dehydration can thicken the blood and increase the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.
“At the same time, hotter temperatures mean the body has to work harder to keep its temperature normal, putting extra strain on the heart, lungs and kidneys.”
Mr Peaty said the pressures of running a salt works alone had made him a workaholic.
He now works seven days a week and never takes a vacation, but only emails in the evenings when he can do so from home.
“When you work on something like this, when it comes from an idea and you know it will eventually become a reality, you have to persevere because you don’t want to fail,” he said.
“The salt company has struggled greatly and I have come close to financial collapse twice.
“Any normal person wouldn’t have done what I did.
“But I’ve done it, so I have to embrace it and see it as a success.
“That’s what drives me. I’m so afraid of failure.”
Two years after it was founded, his East New York Salt Company produces up to six tonnes of salt a month and distributes it around the world.
He collects 6,000 litres of saltwater from the Firth of Forth and uses the by-product, distilled water, to make mineral water.
Darren said: “My wife would come into the factory and say things like, ‘I’m going to kill myself’ and ‘It’s getting out of hand’.”
“But I think she’s the only person who understands me, and now she’s left to me.”