By Mary Wade Burnside
FAIRMONT — Karen Hinerman had just finished exercising on an elliptical machine in her home nearly 11 years ago when she felt pressure on her back and a burning sensation in her throat.
“I felt like I ran 10 miles with my mouth open,” the Fairmont resident said.
She did not know it at the time — nor did doctors at first when she went to the hospital after her husband found her passed out — but Hinerman had suffered a heart attack at the age of 53.
The condition came as somewhat of a surprise to Hinerman, who tried to take good care of herself by eating right and exercising.
But the diagnosis was not completely without any signs. Hinerman’s father had died of a heart attack at the age of 45 — his first heart incident — and both of them have a disease that might have contributed to their conditions, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
“It’s a disease of my skin, connective tissues and joints,” Hinerman said.
The bottom line for Hinerman was that at least in part because of the disease, she was not able to have bypass surgery or a heart transplant, and even the installation of a heart pacemaker in 2005 resulted in some problems when the sac around her heart was punctured.
“The doctor said, ‘You wouldn’t live through a major accident because you would bleed to death, and if you were lucky enough to live from the operation, you might die from infection,’” Hinerman remembered.
That situation has made exercise, specifically cardiac rehab, all the more important for Hinerman. She has been going three times a week for about 10 years now.
“I’m afraid not to exercise,” she said. “I know there is nothing else that can be done for me surgically. So I try to watch my diet and keep everything else strong.”
Alanna Wyant, manager of the cardiovascular center at Fairmont General Hospital, noted the conditions that qualify people to begin the program.
“It’s people who have had a heart attack, heart bypass surgery, angioplasty or stents, have stable angina, aortic valve replacement or a heart transplant,” Wyant said. “Those are the qualifying diagnoses. We start them anywhere from two to four weeks after they have an event.”
Women, noted cardiologist Dr. David Tingler, often experience different symptoms than men when they have a heart attack.
“Women present with atypical symptoms, not like the classic chest pain,” said Tingler, who practices at Fairmont General Hospital and Ruby Memorial Hospital. “For women, it’s different. Pain can be located more in the back or the stomach. It’s not really known why this is.”
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the United States, Tingler said, and the state of West Virginia ranks high on the list with an above-average number of cases.
“Mainly because of obesity, the prevalence of diabetes and inactivity, heart disease is the No. 1 killer in West Virginia,” he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site (www.cdc.gov), in 2002, 696,947 Americans died from heart disease, and 51 percent of them were women. The figure represented 29 percent of all U.S. deaths.
The cardiac-rehab program at Fairmont General gives the patients structured exercise, education on heart health and telemetry monitoring.
“This helps them to physically rehabilitate after an event and helps them to learn the activities they can safely do,” Wyant said. “They learn how to reduce all risk factors for the disease. The healthier you are, the better shape your body is in overall, the easier it is on your heart. If you are really out of shape, it’s harder for your heart to work.”
Wyant has seen some folks come to their first rehab session in a wheelchair, but by the end of the program — usually 12 weeks — “they are using all the equipment and just doing wonderfully,” she said. “Many of the people we get, some people have never exercised. They learn that they feel so much better once they have an exercise routine and that it gives them more energy to do things outside of cardiac rehab.”
The cardiac-rehab program has been moved to the new Fairmont General Hospital HealthPlex in White Hall, which also houses a fitness center for the general public, physician offices, diagnostic services and a new location of White Hall Pharmacy.
In addition to treadmills and other cardio equipment, the cardiac-rehab program offers resistance and strength training as well, even more so since the move, Wyant said.
“Everything is brand new,” she said. “We added strength equipment. We didn’t have a lot at the hospital. The patients seem to really like it.”
E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.
