Vera Loyland refuses to let life’s challenges upset her. After suffering a stroke in late May, she tries to accept what she cannot change.

In early 2016, Loyland and her husband, Rand, moved from Colorado to Michigan for a new job. Unfortunately, the job did not pan out and the couple was left to deal with living in a new city with no income. “Everything seemed to be going wrong,” she said.

In May, while the couple was driving home from the grocery store, Loyland’s head began to ache. “It went from pain to a feeling of swelling and shaking,” she said. She described the sensation as feeling as if her head was being shaken like a can of paint in a machine at the hardware store. “My scalp was tingling, and then it went down my arm, to my hand, then down the whole right side of my body.”

Shortly before her husband pulled in the driveway, Loyland told him something was wrong. “I couldn’t feel my right side. I told him, ‘I think I’m having a stroke.’ I lost my mother to a massive stroke. The doctors told us some of the symptoms she may have suffered. When I had those feelings, I Just knew I was having a stroke, too.” Continue reading. →

While Dexter Wilson did not know he had a heart problem, his wife suspected something was wrong. “I knew something wasn’t right and I kept telling him he needed to see a doctor,” Dexter’s wife, Marcia, said. “He played golf once a week and that was it. He wouldn’t ride his bike with me, he used the riding lawn mower and he just sat around.”

“I napped a lot and I was cold all the time,” 73-year-old Dexter conceded. “It came over me gradually and I figured it was because I’m getting older.”

Dexter Wilson and his wife, Marcia, worked with MidMichigan Health’s Heart Failure Clinic to develop Dexter’s new heart-healthy lifestyle.

At the end of last summer, Dexter started having chest pains and ended up at MidMichigan Medical Center – Midland. Five days later, Dexter underwent triple bypass surgery. Days later, a pacemaker and defibrillator were implanted. He spent a total of 12 days in the Intensive Care Unit at the Medical Center.

Although several weeks of cardiac rehab helped Dexter regain some strength and endurance, he still wasn’t his old self. Continue reading. →

“I had a bad aortic valve,” said 76-year-old Virginia Counselman of Alger. “In my case it was an inherited condition – aortic valve stenosis, which inhibits blood flow.”

Counselman, a retired registered nurse, said she knew for years that she needed surgery to replace the valve. “I always thought I could wait on the surgery until I got old,” she laughed. Apprehension added to the delay. “It’s frightening to face open heart surgery. However, in the past year, I had become more and more limited in my activities. I approached my family physician in June and he suggested I had hypoglycemia. I followed his directions but I know I was not being realistic.”

Everything changed on Sunday morning in October. “I was feeling really lightheaded,” Counselman said. “I almost passed out just moving from one chair to another so I called 911.” The emergency department physician didn’t pull any punches. “He said to me, ‘Virginia, it’s your valve. Go to your cardiologist.'”

The next day, she called her cardiologist, William Felten, M.D. “I’ve known Dr. Felten for 20 years and I trust his judgment,” she said. “He ordered an echocardiogram and some other tests and things started rolling. He said it was time for surgery.”

Counselman had spent years working at another health system in the area. “I didn’t really know much about MidMichigan Health,” she said. “My grandson, who works in physical therapy in Grand Rapids, suggested I consider it. He said the Midland facility is top of the line.” The more research she did, the more convinced she became that MidMichigan Medical Center – Midland was the facility she wanted.

Counselman asked Dr. Felten for a referral and he suggested Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon Michelle Ellis, M.D. “When I went to see Dr. Ellis for a preliminary meeting, I was really impressed,” she said.

By this point, Counselman said she was near end stage. “Dr. Felten had done a cardiac catheterization and said I had only six months until my heart began to show damage. Dr. Ellis said I was closer to the three month window so there was not a lot of time to waste.”

Counselman has the faulty valve replaced on January 7. “As a retired nurse, I know the complications that can happen and I didn’t have any,” she said. “Not all hospitals are created equal and one reason I chose the Medical Center in Midland is because the infection rate, at all levels, is so low.”

She spent a week recovering at the Medical Center. “I was quite impressed with the staff. They worked well together,” she said. “I really liked that I was in the same room during my entire stay. Getting a new valve is like getting a transplant; staying in one room reduced my exposure.”

Most of all, Counselman said she was impressed with the fact that her surgeon monitored her progress throughout her stay. “Dr. Ellis told me she is an expert on surgery and on post-op heart care so care and management of the patient stays with her. I really liked that I was under her care until I was discharged.”

By March, she was ready to begin cardiac rehab to regain her strength and stamina. “I had an echocardiogram post-surgery and I’m very pleased with my progress,” she said. “I feel better than I’ve felt in five years.”

Counselman urges others who may be delaying treatment to take action. “I have a good cardiologist and I should have seen him early on, when my activity level dropped,” she said. “When you need surgery, don’t put it off. Find a good surgeon, and a good place to have the surgery, and get it done.”

MidMichigan Health offers a full array of heart and vascular services, including open heart surgery, vascular surgery, electrophysiology for heart rhythm problems and advanced interventional procedures. Those who would like additional information on MidMichigan’s comprehensive cardiovascular team may visit www.midmichigan.org/heart.

James Watt of Midland was stunned to learn that he needed heart surgery, and his first thought was to go out of town for care. Instead he decided on MidMichigan Medical Center – Midland.

“After my experience at MidMichigan, I don’t believe I could find better care anywhere else on the planet,” he said.

Watt had retired as a detective after 26 years with the Michigan State Police and was wrapping up his second career, with Michigan Health and Human Services, when he began having extreme fatigue and other symptoms.

James Watt and his wife, Jeanne, exercise together at the Fitness Center located at MidMichigan Medical Center – Midland.

“A group of us at work used to walk after lunch, and I began having a hard time keeping up,” he said. “At home, I could no longer mow the whole lawn in one day. I thought about getting a riding mower. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I would wake up aching from my waist to my toes.”

Watt wondered if he might have diabetes, high blood pressure or a back problem. After one scary episode, he stopped speculating, saw his family doctor and took a stress test. The results prompted a visit to Interventional Cardiologist Andrzej Boguszewski, M.D., known to many of his patients as “Dr. B.”

“I was scared,” Watt said, “but from the minute my wife, Jeanne, and I met Dr. B, we liked everything about him. He is friendly, with a calm and deliberate manner that helped me be logical and less anxious. I felt like he’d been my doctor my whole life.” Continue reading. →

Stewart White didn’t think too much about it when the vision in his left eye would dim and he would lose sight in it for a few seconds.

“It annoyed me, but then it went away,” said Stewart, who lives in Midland with his wife, Dara Lee. “We were in the process of selling our house up north. We had been living off the grid for 13 years – using solar panels and a windmill – and I always had a lot of maintenance to do. I figured I was just pushing myself too hard.”

Stewart White and his wife, Dara Lee, are grateful for the high quality of care he received, while undergoing a procedure at MidMichigan Medical Center – Midland.

Stewart didn’t realized he was having TIAs – transient ischemic attacks – and was in danger of having a stroke that could leave him blind or damage his brain.

At his wife’s urging, in January 2015 Stewart went to the doctor. He ended up having surgery to clear the plaque from the artery on the left side of his neck. Unfortunately, the blockage returned within six months.

“My artery was almost plugged again,” Stewart said. “This time I decided to see Dr. Rizk, the cardiologist that my father sees.”

At their appointment, Interventional Cardiologist Maged Rizk, M.D., examined Stewart and determined he was experiencing amaurosis fugax, the medical term for episodes of sudden loss of vision in one eye. Continue reading. →

Many things can set one’s heart racing; falling in love, addressing a crowd or narrowly avoiding an auto accident, for example. For most people, heart palpitations are prompted by an event and dissipate almost as quickly as they come on.

For 33-year-old Tammy Stevens, spontaneous heart palpitations had haunted her since she was 16. “They would just come on all of a sudden and I never knew when they would stop,” she said. “I didn’t feel faint, but I would have to stop what I was doing and sit down until they went away.”

The heart palpitations were frightening. Stevens had sought help before, but no pattern or triggering event was found. She may have been resigned to living with her episodes of sudden, rapid heartbeat had it not been for a test that was done to clear the way for her to take a new medication.

Electrophysiologist Opesanmi Esan, M.D., a member of MidMichigan Physician Group’s electrophysiology team, treats patients with atrial fibrillation and other electrical heart rhythm disorders. In a relatively simple procedure, Dr. Esan implanted a loop recorder beneath the skin on Stevens’ chest. The devise is designed to continuously monitor and record the heart’s electrical activity. It can be used for long periods of time, which is helpful for patients like Stevens who have infrequent symptoms.

“Once the loop recorder was implanted, they caught the palpitations the first day,” Stevens said. “I wish I’d done this years ago. I’ve had lots of EKGs over the years, and wore a Holter monitor for a month, but until they used the loop recorder they could not find a problem. Dr. Esan did an ablation procedure to correct the problem in January and since then I haven’t had any palpitations.”

Stevens is delighted with the results of her procedure and with her electrophysiology team. “Dr. Esan was very pleasant to talk to and his staff were very helpful and treated me well,” she said. “They are going to keep the recorder in for a year to make sure the problem is completely fixed.”

She’s also grateful she no longer has to worry about her heart. “It’s the best thing ever.”

MidMichigan Health offers a full array of heart and vascular services, including open heart surgery, vascular surgery, electrophysiology for heart rhythm problems and advanced interventional procedures. Those who would like additional information on MidMichigan’s comprehensive cardiovascular team may visit www.midmichigan.org/heart.

Like millions of other people, Laurie Nevill was born with a heart murmur. Like millions of other people, she seldom gave it a second thought. “I was a healthy child,” she said. “I wasn’t often sick and never needed to see a specialist.”

Laurie Nevill was impressed by the ease with which two major medical centers navigated her complex medical situation; thanks to their coordination of care, she was able to regain her strength and stamina after undergoing heart surgery.

In January 2010, Nevill went to see her primary care provider for a routine health check. “I regularly had ultrasound tests because of the murmur,” she said. “For whatever reason, this time my provider suggested that a cardiologist read the results.”

That suggestion changed, and possibly saved, her life. When she followed up with the cardiologist, Nevill was told she was at extreme risk for sudden death and needed surgery to replace a faulty aortic valve. In her case, the aortic valve was not closing completely and blood was regurgitating, or leaking, back into her heart.

“At first I was in shock,” she said. However, as she thought about her health and her history, she knew things were not right. “I thought about the ‘new patient questions’ they always have you answer – the ones I always marked no but should have marked yes. I had a cough; I had shortness of breath. Suddenly, everything clicked into place. What I thought was normal life, was a set of symptoms.” Continue reading. →

On an ordinary Thursday night, 67-year-old Maynard Coulson was, as usual, at Merrill Wesleyan Church. A part of the praise team, he and a few other members of the congregation were getting ready to rehearse for Sunday morning services. “I felt a little pain in my chest after moving a speaker and started sweating but I brushed it off and we started practicing,” he said.

Thanks to fast action by paramedics and MidMichigan’s Regional STEMI Alert Team, Maynard Coulson is back to living an active, healthy life after suffering from a STEMI heart attack.

But the pain got a lot worse. His niece, Sarah, noticed that he didn’t look right and started asking questions. “When I told her the pain was in the center of my chest, she called 911 and told them she thought I was having a heart attack,” he said.

“While we waited for the ambulance to arrive, they had me chew a few baby aspirins,” Coulson said. “When the paramedics got there, they didn’t waste any time. They immediately hooked me up and were relaying numbers and results within minutes. Everything worked just like it was supposed to.”

The paramedics had immediately checked Coulson’s vital signs and performed a 12-lead ECG that revealed he was having an ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) heart attack.

In STEMI patients, the coronary artery is completely blocked off by a blood clot. As a result of this blockage, all of the heart muscle being supplied by the affected artery starts to die.

Upon determining the severity of the situation, the paramedics followed a streamlined process referred to as MidMichigan’s Regional STEMI Alert Program. It is designed to rapidly identify patients who are suffering from a STEMI heart attack so treatment can be expedited upon arrival at MidMichigan Medical Center – Midland.

It was a rough ride to MidMichigan Medical Center – Midland, Coulson said. “I was in a lot of pain but I could hear the paramedics talking. I didn’t know anything about the STEMI program, but when we got to the hospital we didn’t go to the ER. We went around by the maternity entrance and there was a cath team waiting. I went from the ambulance to the gurney and they started working.”

Interventional Cardiologist Michael Lauer, M.D., led the team that cared for Coulson. “When they started, my pain was a 9.5 out of 10,” Coulson said. “They found one plugged artery and tried a balloon angioplasty but it (the artery) collapsed when they pulled it out. Then they put in a stent and I remember feeling the pain go away.”

While the immediate threat was taken care of, three other arteries needed repair. “I ended up with three bypasses in addition to the stent,” Coulson said. “I had that surgery on a Friday and was discharged the following Wednesday.”

Coulson said he hadn’t been a patient in a hospital since 1965. “I was very impressed with the whole operation,” he said. “The doctors and nurses were really great and did their best to put us all at ease. They are just top notch people.”

Looking back, Coulson said he had experienced some symptoms but didn’t connect them to his heart health. “I didn’t have as much ambition as usual,” he said. “I was content to just relax after dinner and that’s not like me.” He had also experienced angina and thought it was indigestion. “I noticed that if I exerted myself after eating, the pain would start.” In fact, just one month before his heart attack, he had an acute attack of angina that he again attributed to stomach issues.

He admits the heart attack caught him by surprise. “I didn’t think I had risk factors,” Coulson said. “I don’t drink or smoke. Both my parents had bypass surgery, but they were older. My son had problems at age 37 and ended up with two stents.” For years, Coulson had also taken medications to lower cholesterol and manage hypertension.

Today, Coulson feels healthy and blessed. “It was definitely a reality check,” he said. “Don’t take anything for granted. If you have issues, look into it. I had an appointment set up with my doctor and I was going to ask him about pain after eating. I should have called him months ago. If you have problems, don’t blow them off. If you notice something is different, talk to your doctor.”

With state protocols now in place, MidMichigan’s Regional STEMI Alert Program is approved for up to a 90-minute patient transport time to MidMichigan Medical Center – Midland. To ensure the overall success of the program, MidMichigan Medical Center – Emergency Medical Services actively collaborates with other area EMS providers to provide ongoing training and support. Those interested in more information on MidMichigan’s Regional STEMI Alert Program may visit www.midmichigan.org/stemi.

For two years, 45-year-old Sheryl Chambers of Beaverton was plagued by heartburn. “At least I thought it was heartburn,” she said. “It felt like heartburn, really bad heartburn. Any time I would exert myself I would feel this terrible heartburn. Even running down the hall would trigger it. If I stopped and rested, it would usually go away. It kept getting worse and worse and lasting longer and longer.”

When over-the-counter remedies didn’t work, Chambers sought help. She was treated with various, and powerful, acid reducers and inhibitors but nothing seemed to help. “It was really severe at times,” she said. “I went to the ER more than once because it was so bad.”

After undergoing open-heart surgery, Sheryl Chambers is able to live a healthy lifestyle without experiencing pain.

During one such visit, Emergency Medicine Physician Roger J. Beaudoing, D.O., suggested she wear a Holter monitor, a device that would record her heart’s activity, to confirm the suspicion that angina, not stomach acid, was causing her pain. The term “angina” usually refers to “angina pectoris,” or chest pain. It occurs when the heart doesn’t get enough oxygen, which is often caused by a buildup of plaque that partially clogs the coronary arteries and reduces blood flow to the heart. The pain can be severe or mild and often follows exertion or stress.

The results of the 48-hour test raised concerns, and Chambers was referred to Cardiologist Steven Gellman, M.D. After that, things moved very quickly, she said. Continue reading. →

For 10 years, 53-year-old Darci Rummer battled one respiratory issue after another. “I struggled for years,” she said. “I spent a lot of time in the ER and a lot of heartache, money and anxiety.”

As part of her recovery process, Darci Rummer participated in cardiac rehabilitation at MidMichigan Medical Center – Gratiot.

Rummer knew that something was seriously wrong. “I kept getting worse and worse,” she said. “I had what they call air hunger pains – severe pain up by the shoulder blades. I would get to the point where I felt like I couldn’t breathe. And I kept getting pneumonia. One year it was so bad, I was intubated for a day and a half.”

What Rummer did not know is that a childhood illness, rheumatic fever, an inflammatory disease that may develop after a strep infection, had damaged her heart valves. Continue reading. →