heart health

As he was recovering from COVID-19 last fall, Keith Figge heard some strange news at a follow-up checkup at CHCS: He had a heart murmur. An appointment with a cardiologist revealed that he had a prolapsed mitral valve.

Figge, who was born and raised in Onaga and has served as Onaga High School’s agricultural education teacher and FFA advisor for 27 years, smiles easily and enjoys a good laugh. But that day, he was scared. He was referred to a surgeon, who convinced him that surgery...

Community HealthCare System is expanding its Cardiac Rehab program. The program, which began in early 2020, will now include both Phase 2 and Phase 3 options for individuals who are recovering from a heart attack, heart or heart valve surgery, or heart catheterization. The program also helps patients who are managing chronic congestive heart failure.

Phase 2 lasts 6 to 12 weeks, and participants attend up to an hour-long session three days a week to exercise and learn about topics such...

We’ve all been worried about our health as we put on our masks to run errands, sanitize our hands, and avoid gatherings, but we probably haven’t been thinking about our hearts very often. Our hearts beat 2.5 billion times over the average lifetime and push millions of gallons of blood to every part of the body, so we need to care for these life‐giving organs. If you need to take time to catch up on caring for your heart, CHCS is here to help.

Diet and exercise both play...

If you have chest pain, shortness of breath, or heart rhythm problems, your doctor may order a cardiac stress test to find out how well your heart pumps.

The test takes several hours and involves injecting a tracer and collecting images of the heart at rest, then collecting another image of the heart while it’s pumping vigorously. The images help a doctor determine whether blockages are causing problems and what treatments patients need.

Patients must fast for 12 hours...

Cardiac rehab is an outpatient program that combines both exercise and education to modify a participant’s lifestyle. The customized and medically supervised program helps participants improve their cardiac health. Cardiac rehab is crucial for those who have had a recent heart attack, had heart surgery, had valve surgery, or a have had a heart catheterization with or without stents. It can also help people with chronic congestive heart failure. The program...