Dancing Again
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Jack Logan, 75, put on his dancing shoes Monday morning and performed ballroom dancing with his dancing partner, Pam Young, in the lobby of Newman Regional Health.
Logan and his partner danced and twirled to the music in the lobby while patients and staff alike looked on. Some clapped. Some cheered. It was a good day for Logan as he and Young tore up the makeshift dance floor.
Logan has a new lease on life after going through Newman’s Cardiac Rehabilitation program. After a heart attack three years ago, he was unable to do what he loves so much — dance. He has been dancing for 25 years. He and his wife, Pat, who died three years ago, used to teach dancing.
“It’s fun,” Logan said. “I love it.”
Logan said he wouldn’t be dancing or even alive if it wasn’t for the Cardiac Rehabilitation program, an outpatient program at Newman.
“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them,” Logan said. “I come into classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I’m 75 years old and I’m lucky to be doing what I’m doing.”
During the classes, Logan said he exercises and gets information about keeping his heart healthy.
“They’re definitely very special people,” Logan said, of the staff at the Cardiac Rehabilitation unit.
According to its brochure, the unit has two major components: exercise training and education and counseling. Patients who come to the rehab center have heart diseases such as angina or heart failure or have had heart attacks; or have had heart surgery ranging from stents to heart transplants.
Mary Knickerbocker and Shirley Hogan, both nurses in the rehab unit, talked about the unit and its benefits.
Knickerbocker said the unit has classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for about an hour. These classes allow patients to exercise and receive information. Education and counseling sessions also are held each week. Patients, family and friends are encouraged to attend these sessions.
Patients who take part in the cardiac rehab program are referred by their doctors, Knickerbocker said.
“People don’t just walk in and join up,” she said.
Inside the rehab unit are exercise equipment and television sets. A lot of the exercise equipment was donated by Beta Sigma Phi through the sorority’s annual Heart Dance, which has been held for 57 years to benefit cardiac health. Last year, the dance raised enough to be the seed money for the rehab center’s expansion, Hogan said. The televisions were donated by the Hospital Auxiliary.
“We were running out of space,” Hogan said. “We did an expansion to accommodate more (patients).”
Hogan said the people in the rehab unit become like family after a while.
“It becomes a family group,” Hogan said.
Hogan said the unit gets people of all ages, not just older people. The unit has had patients in their 20s.
“We see a wide range of ages in patients,” Hogan said. “We have a lot of people in their 40s, 50s and 60s. We have a lot of younger people that think it’s just a bunch of (older) people and they realize they are not alone.”
The unit sees about 40 to 50 people a day. Hogan said only a small proportion of the people who could benefit from the cardiac unit actually use it.
“Only about 33 percent of people that are eligible come,” Hogan said. “That’s a national average.”
Hogan said the program emphasizes exercise as a part of cardiac health.
“Exercise is so important,” she said. “It’s so important to keep going and keep life fulfilled.”
Hogan said the patients enjoy the program.
“I think we have a great program and a great service that we have to offer,” she said. “These people want to continue to be healthy.”
For more information on the cardiac rehabilitation program, contact the cardiopulmonary services department at Newman Regional health 343-6800, ext. 1309 or 1300.