Open House for Health
Newman department shows off its services
By Brandy Nance (Contact)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
A handful of people showed up for this morning’s open house at Cardiopulmonary Services at Newman Regional Health.
The open house started at 6:30 a.m. today and several hospital employees trickled into the Cardiopulmonary Services Center on the first floor of Newman. The open house, which was to be repeated from 2 to 4 p.m. today, was held in observance of National Respiratory Care Week, which runs through Saturday.
Karen Schell, director of Cardiopulmonary Services at Newman, said the department is actually five departments rolled into one and includes services such as cardiac rehabilitation, a sleep lab, a catheterization lab, electrocardiogram services and various types of breathing treatments. Fifteen employees work in the department performing various duties.
Schell said the department is getting ready to go into its busy season with winter colds and flu. She said people who already have compromised lung function can be hit hard this time of year.
Several people who visited the department this morning congregated around a table that was placed near the entrance to the department. On the left side of the table a “smokers lung” was placed and hooked up to a ventilator machine. The lung was black and tarry and the right side of the lung wouldn’t inflate at all. On the right side of the table was a healthy pink lung that inflated fully as air as pumped through it.
“The number one thing you can do for lung health is to stop smoking or never start,” Schell said, as she pumped air into the healthy lung. “The sooner you quit, the better you’ll be in the long run.”
Schell said the open house was held to help people become aware of the services the department offers.
“A lot of times we get mistaken for a nurse,” she said. “We are here as providers of good health ... and I just wanted to let (people) know what we do.”
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