Porter Partners with the American Heart Association to Make the Region Healthier

February is American Heart Month, and this time of year is dedicated to raising awareness on heart disease and stroke all across the country. The American Heart Association (AHA), the oldest and largest voluntary health organization, champions this effort. Heart disease and stroke are the number 1 and number 4 causes of death among Americans. The AHA is an avid advocate of good lifestyle and eating habits, positive behavior, and funds the latest research and educational programs that are dedicated to heart health.

Porter Health Care System announced at the beginning of February in a press conference that is has entered into a multi-year partnership with the AHA. They plan to raise awareness as well as funds for heart health-centered research, education, and advocacy, sharing the common goal with the AHA of making Northwest Indiana a healthier region.

“The AHA has presented us with an opportunity, and our staff and leaders here have encouraged me to not be a silent partner but a vocal leader for this initiative,” Steve Lunn, CEO of Porter Health Care System said. “I have the honor of sharing what I believe to be a real game changer to Porter’s commitment to fighting heart disease.”

As part of the partnership, Porter will be a sponsor of the 2016 Go Red for Women Campaign and the Porter County Heart Walk.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to work with many individuals,” Diane Kemp, Executive Director of the American Heart Association of Northwest Indiana said. “And if we take action in the proper time periods, we can touch lives and save lives. It’s so important for us to message that through this partnership. Partnerships like this one are essential all over the country and right here in Indiana because heart disease is the number one cause of death in men and women and it’s the number one birth defect; congenital heart defect.”

Porter is home to one of the best cardiology programs in Northern Indiana, the Center for Cardiovascular Medicine, with numerous awards and accreditations from the AHA as well as other entities like The Joint Commission, Blue Cross Blue Shield Distinction, Society for Chest Pain Centers, Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care, and the American Association of Cardiovascular Pulmonary Rehabilitation. The Center’s Heart Failure Program received the Get With The Guidelines®–Heart Failure Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award from the AHA for implementing certain procedures with patients with heart failure.

“Since 2001 a very committed team of people worked tirelessly with a commitment to heart failure and a commitment to quality improvement,” Terri Gingerich, Porter Regional Hospital Cardiovascular Service Line Director said. “Through that work we became a Gold-Plus recipient. There are multiple levels to this award and we have won all of the levels. The Gold-Plus level really signifies not only our commitment to those quality standards and evidence-based standards regarding heart failure, but also the consistency with which we have been able to do that.”

Each day, Porter gets firsthand experience in seeing what heart disease and stroke do to patients and their families. But not many who work at Porter get to experience things from the patient’s point-of-view. Alison Erickson is a Unit Assistant at Porter Regional Hospital and at the young age of 19 she suffered from heart disease.

“I was very active and I played volleyball. I got my physical and I was told that I had a ‘cross country heart’,” Erickson said.

What she didn’t know was that the top half of her heart wasn’t working with the bottom, causing a third degree heart blockage. She was tired, suffered from nightmares (which was her body trying to wake her up when her heart would stop during the night), and one morning began to feel a tightness in her chest which she at first thought was a pulled muscle. By the evening she was in severe pain and went in to Porter Regional Hospital.

The triage nurse on duty had Erickson get an EKG just to be safe, and that’s when the blockage was found. Erickson was told that she would need a pace maker and after getting a second opinion which mirrored that statement, she had a pace maker implanted in her chest.

“When you’re helping a patient you know what to do, but it’s different when you’re on the cart,” Erickson said. “I’m glad now that I went through that experience because I can help my patients so much more.”