ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
February is Heart Awareness Month, and the staff at Liberal’s Southwest Medical Center is looking to bring attention to heart health and disease not just during February but throughout the year.
In particular, SWMC Trauma Program Coordinator Katie Coleman said heart disease is the number one killer for women, so hospital officials want to make sure women are especially aware of heart problems and their symptoms.
“We bring awareness to CPR, and anyone can do CPR,” she said. “There’s training for CPR at the hospital if they’re interested in that.”
To do this, Coleman said the hospital provides education to the community through the emergency room about heart healthy diets and other tips to follow about exercise and cutting down on smoking.
Heart attacks are the most well known of cardiac conditions, but Coleman said there are several other problems people could face.
“There’s high blood pressure,” she said. “You can have heart disease with that. Atrial fibrillation can affect the heart, and that can increase your risk for stroke. May is Stroke Awareness Month. That’s a big heart issue as well as afib.”
Coleman explained some of the tips for those already suffering from heart disease as well as helping prevent it.
“If you already have heart illness, follow up with your primary care provider,” she said. “Take your medication appropriately. In order to prevent major cardiac episodes, lifestyle changes are really important. Exercise, follow a heart healthy diet with increasing vegetables, fruits, limiting our red meat, no smoking, decreasing your alcohol intake.”
Though many people tie smoking to lungs, Coleman said it affects the heart too.
“It affects our vessels in the heart,” she said. “It causes our heart to work overtime when we do smoke.”
Overall, Coleman said a person’s diet is the primary key to a healthy heart.
“As Americans, we eat a lot of fast food,” she said. “We have a lot of fats and grease. It’s important to make sure we’re limiting the butter we put on our potato.”
Coleman said SWMC has many primary care providers, both doctors and nurse practitioners, who are well trained in heart disease and high blood pressure.
“Cypress Heart from Wichita comes out monthly to do follow-ups,” she said. “It’s an excellent resource we have available to the community. As far as the ER, we have lab tests we can run and EKG, which shows the electrical part of your heart, to see if it’s working and pumping okay.”
While SWMC does not have the resources of hospitals in larger communities such as Wichita and Amarillo, Texas, the local hospital does quite well for a rural facility.
“We have standards of care we meet regarding heart health and heart disease, if they’re having a heart attack,” she said. “We try to make sure we follow those guidelines and meet those requirements the state provides for us. It’s really good that Cypress Heart still comes down as a resource to see the community and outside the community so we can provide a wide range for not just Liberal, but the surrounding areas.”
Coleman herself graduated in 2008 from Seward County Community College’s nursing program, and she has worked as a certified nurse aide at SWMC since 2005. After graduation, she worked on multiple floors of the hospital, and she has been in the ER for about 12 years.
Originally wanting to be a pharmacist, Coleman said her sister suggested she go into nursing as a CNA.
“With pharmacy, I had to leave my community and home,” she said. “I had a child at that time as well. I thought I’d go into nursing and see how that went.”
As a medical provider in the ER, Coleman said SWMC provides stable critical care for heart patients.
“If you’re having a heart attack, a stroke, we have the education and the items to ensure that quality of life later on down the line is appropriate,” she said. “As a trauma program coordinator, I’m making sure we are taking care of trauma patients from a laceration to a huge accident involving a semi and a car. We provide the same best care as if you were at Wesley until we can get you stabilized and shipped.”
