The Cardiac Treatment Center

Moses Taylor Hospital has a lot of heart for its patients. Especially those in the Cardiac Treatment Center. The Center has been designed for those patients in need of medically supervised exercise therapy to strengthen their heart. The Center's cardiac nurses have been trained in rehabilitating patients with coronary heart disease and help patients go through a personal assessment and testing.

A patient's nurse prescribes a personal care plan of medication, diet, and exercise. Anita Gallagher, RN, always stresses that "their plan must be followed for life. If you stop the program after only ten days, everything you have done up to that point will have been in vain." The purpose of rehabilitation exercises is for cardiovascular strengthening and endurance. The American Heart Association has recommended cardiovascular activity from 30 to 45 minutes three to four times per week.

During a patient's course of the program, they attend education sessions to learn how to live a new healthy lifestyle. Each week an educational session is run by the hospital dietitian to teach patients how to prepare meals that are nutritionally balanced to lower their cholesterol. The program highly recommends that the spouses of the patient attend these dietary sessions because they may be preparing some of the patient's meals.

Awareness is a person's best defense to prevent coronary heart disease. Once again, Moses Taylor Hospital is proud to be the residential sponsor of the American Heart Association's annual campaign to raise the awareness of the incidence of cardiovascular disease in our community.

To make the issue hit closer to home, the campaign letters were penned by members of the local community. Two men shared their personal stories to help others recognize the potentially dangerous risk factors associated with heart disease.

James Gambucci from Scranton is happy to join Moses Taylor Hospital and the American Heart Association in their fight against cardiovascular disease. At the age of 50, Gambucci didn't think that he needed to worry about heart problems. When a routine stress test indicated abnormalities, his family physician, Dr. Karen Paczkowski, recommended a cardiac catherization. while he was aware that he had several risk factors associated with heart disease, he never imagined that he would be a candidate for open-heart surgery. After having five blockages repaired, he began to understand the importance of education and the work of the American Heart Association.

Although it was impossible for James to change his genetic disposition towards heart disease, it wasn't hard for him to reduce his risk factors. Through a strict regimen of exercise and cardiac rehabilitation at the Cardiac Treatment Center, he was able to get back onto the fast track of life.

Another member of the community who wanted to share his story to help others was John Okrak of Peckville. While cutting the grass one day, Okrak did not recognize the chest pain radiating towards his back and his difficulty breathing as the symptoms of a heart attack. He dismissed the pains as insignificant. fortunately, his wife recognized the signs and immediately took him to the Emergency Department at Mid Valley Hospital. After a series of tests, his diagnosis of a heart attack was confirmed. Soon after, he too enrolled in a strict regimen of exercise at the Moses Taylor Cardiac Treatment Center. Through this program, Okrak was able to recognize that his high blood pressure, smoking habit, and excess weight were all risk factors of heart disease. He now attends rehabilitation two days a week and walks regularly. After changing his diet and losing twenty pounds, he is now in better shape than before his heart attack.

These two men hope that by sharing their experiences, they can help others understand the need for more research and awareness of this life-threatening disease. Moses Taylor Hospital hopes that this campaign will educate people to reevaluate their lifestyles so that they can prevent having to visit the Emergency Department or the Cardiac Treatment Center.