Mercy Springfield kicks off American Heart Month with celebration of heart patients
To kick off American Heart Month, Mercy Hospital Springfield reunited heart patients and their doctors on Thursday evening. Four individuals were highlighted during the event, including Harriet Henderson, who celebrated her 101st birthday that day.
"It's really a pleasure to start Heart Month, Feb. 1, with these amazing stories: stories of life, stories of success, stories of survival, stories of hearts recovered," said Dr. Gerard Oghlakian, who leads Mercy's cardiology team.
CPR can be an invaluable tool
The importance of CPR education and training was underscored in two cases: Gary Locke's heart attack and Helen Henson's heart attack.
Locke came home after a run, complaining of not feeling well, and collapsed before he and his wife could leave for the hospital. His wife performed CPR for 12 minutes until EMS arrived.
"That truly is why he is here today, because (his wife) did bystander CPR," said Dr. Jessica Birchem. "That's one thing we need to educate our community about and how to do it. Educate our kids, teach our friends, tell them to learn how to do it, because (CPR) is why he got to the hospital."
In Henson's case, her daughter Jennifer Maggard was the one who performed the live-preserving measure. Maggard performed CPR on 70-year-old Henson for 15 minutes. Maggard had been trained in CPR as a Mercy employee, but never had to use it until then.
Technology helps people survive, thrive
When Dr. Don Myears began his career, the life-saving catheters used today "were fantasies." That fantasy ended up being instrumental for Chuck Silverest.
After coming to Mercy with a heart attack, he began having respiratory failure, kidney failure and all of his body's systems began shutting down. It turned out that the right side of Silverest's heart had failed, which is the side that pumps blood into the lungs to get oxygenated.
However, a pump that took over pumping blood into the lungs meant that the right side of Silverest's heart could rest and after 10 days of bedrest, the right side of his heart began working again.
"Truly, a miraculous outcome. We all know the good Lord is in charge of these circumstances, but this catheter saved Chuck's life," Myears said.
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Technology also played a role in Henderson's story. When her aortic valve failed in July 2023, Dr. Adnan Kassier debated whether replacing the valve would be too much for the 100-year-old.
They found she was a candidate for a transcatheter aortic valve replacement, which is a minimally invasive procedure that requires only an incision to thread the tube up into the heart to place the replacement valve, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Henderson went in for the procedure and went home two days later, Kassier said.
Susan Szuch reports on health and food for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at sszuch@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Mercy Hospital Springfield celebrates heart patients, doctors
