Long known for Valentines, friendship, love and hearts, February is recognized as American Heart Month. Community Healthcare System invites the public to join us in the annual Hearts of Hope campaign. Funds raised help improve local access to treatment options made available through research.
This year, the 17th annual event at St. Mary Medical Center will be virtual on Monday, February 10, with the safety and health of residents and patients in mind during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each crimson light placed on a beautifully decorated, 12-foot tree in the west Patient Tower lobby is lit during the event in honor or in memory of someone who fills our hearts with love and joy.
The lights also represent donations to fund vitally needed clinical trials that advance the quality of healthcare available to our communities. For a $15 donation, the honoree is sent a Hearts of Hope lapel pin. For a $5 donation, a light shines for a special person in one’s life.
The public is invited to make a donation and participate in the virtual event. Visit COMHS.org/heartsofhope to donate. Donors and honorees will be sent an online link to the pre-recorded Hearts of Hope program benefiting Cardiovascular Research on or after Monday, February 10. Donors submitting names of honorees before Tuesday, February 4, will be listed in the program.
Music by the Valparaiso University chorus will be part of the virtual event. The choir selected its rendition of “This is my Father’s World,” by Amy Grant to convey the message of hope and healing.
Led by St. Mary Medical Center CEO Janice Ryba, the pre-recorded virtual ceremony will feature remarks from Dale O’Donnell, vice president Cardiology Services for Community Healthcare System, and cardiologist Abdul Kawamleh, MD, FACC, affiliated with the Community Care Network. Cardiovascular patient Mark Wilkins will give a personal account of his heart attack and remarkable lifesaving recovery explaining that he wouldn’t be here today without the extraordinary care he received from the Community Healthcare System team.
“Somebody was watching over me,” Wilkins says about his recovery after his heart stopped three times following a heart attack.
Wilkins had experienced a STEMI (ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction), the most severe type of heart attack. A heart attack or myocardial infarction happens when an artery supplying blood to the heart suddenly becomes partially or completely blocked by a blood clot or plaque.
Community Healthcare System acute care hospitals: Community Hospital, Munster; St. Catherine Hospital, East Chicago; and St. Mary Medical Center, Hobart, are accredited Chest Pain Centers. The hospitals earned the distinction based on a rigorous evaluation of their cardiac care services and for practices, guidelines and treatment during the critical first stages of a heart attack when the chances of recovering are the greatest.
Physicians in the Emergency Department of St. Mary Medical Center determined that Wilkins needed the blockage in his heart cleared and he was in heart failure. Wilkins’ cardiologist Zlatan Stepanovic, MD, had performed a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedure for more than six hours to clear the blockage, only to find another blockage behind the first one. The PCI procedure allows surgeons to penetrate calcified blockages like Wilkins’ and use advanced balloons and other tools to open the arteries and restore blood flow.
Wilkins’ fragile heart needed help to continue to pump blood, and Dr. Kawamleh implanted an Impella® pump. The Impella heart pump helps maintain a stable heart function by pumping blood for the heart. This gives a weak heart muscle an opportunity to rest and reduces the heart’s workload, preventing the heart from being overstressed as coronary artery blockages are repaired during the Protected PCI procedure.
“While Dr. Stepanovic was working on opening the artery, Mark’s heart function was severely compromised,” Dr. Kawamleh says. “His heart needed help to keep blood flowing to vital organs like his brain, kidneys, and the heart itself. Inserting the Impella pump enabled Dr. Stepanovic to perform the procedure and open Mark’s arteries. I was proud to be a part of this great team to save Mark’s life.”
The pump is inserted through a catheter in the groin to reach the heart. Once in place, the Impella acts as a bypass machine, pulling blood from the left ventricle through the rest of the heart.
The Impella heart pump is designed to provide minimally invasive temporary support to assist the pumping function of the heart, allowing it to rest and potentially recover. It is the only therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as safe and effective for heart recovery in patients with advanced heart failure requiring Protected PCI or patients in cardiogenic shock due to a heart attack.
To learn more about cardiovascular research at St. Mary Medical Center and the hospitals of Community Healthcare System, visit COMHS.org/services/heart-care/heart-research
For more information about Hearts of Hope, call 219-947-6041 or visit COMHS.org/heartsofhope.
