West Virginia

As many of you know, May is American Stroke Month as well as National High Blood Pressure Education Month. But, did you know that high blood pressure is the leading modifiable risk factor for stroke?

About 87% of strokes are ischemic strokes. This type of stroke is caused by narrowed or clogged blood vessels in the brain that cut off the blood flow to brain cells. Because high blood pressure damages arteries throughout the body, it is critical to keep your blood pressure within acceptable ranges to protect your brain from this often disabling or fatal event.

Do you know the eight main ways you can control your blood pressure?

Not Just for Adults
During National High Blood Pressure Education Month, the focus shouldn’t just be on adults – but kids as well.  Children who have high sodium diets are twice as likely to develop high blood pressure as children who have low sodium diets.  Help teach your kiddos good eating habits today! 

Not only can we change our personal risk of stroke, but we can also make our communities healthier.  To learn more about our current efforts and to show your legislators that stroke and heart health issues are important to you, please visit our Take Action center to send your supportive message today.  Don’t forget to share your actions with your friends on Facebook. 

This week, we’re celebrating those who make sure people having a stroke get the care they need as quickly as possible – EMS professionals. Every day the AHA works to ensure all citizens get appropriate care when suffering from a stroke. This starts with quick action emergency responders.  Having the right protocols in place can reduce death and disability from stroke. With policy, this involves working with government officials to be sure that exemplary stroke legislation and guidelines are put into place.

Over the years, we have worked to create and enhance stroke systems of care, which provide patients seamless transition from one stage of care to the next with the highest quality at each step. Many states have implemented quality stroke policy, such as primary stroke center recognition, EMS protocols and stroke registries.

To learn more about current efforts and to show your legislators that heart health issues are important to you, please visit our Take Action center to send your supportive message today and encourage others to send a message through Facebook.

As we continue to think about the wellbeing of women during National Women’s Health week, smoking rates among females comes to mind. It may surprise you to learn that smoking increases the risk of heart disease and stroke by 2 to 4 times. Also, women who smoke have a 25 percent higher risk of developing heart disease as compared to men who smoke.  And, continuing to smoke throughout your life shaves 13-14 years off of your life expectancy. So, despite beliefs to the contrary, smoking doesn’t just cause a risk for lung cancer.

And Along Comes Baby

As you would imagine, smoking during pregnancy causes a whole new set of health concerns for the unborn child. In fact, it has been shown to reduce the production of a chemical that relaxes blood vessels and can lead to lowered blood flow to the fetus, resulting in lower birth weight, shorter length and smaller head circumference. If an expectant mother stops smoking early in pregnancy, enzyme levels return to normal and the infant is born at normal birth weight. Here in West Virginia we are ranked 50 out of 50 with 29.7% of pregnant women smoking.

To learn about resources for quitting smoking and to show your legislators that stroke and heart health issues are important to you, please visit our Take Action center to send your supportive message today and encourage others to send a message through Facebook.

Did you know that more than half of total stroke deaths occur in women? And, that at all ages, more women than men die of stroke?

If you are like most women, chances are you go to great lengths to take care of others and not burden friends and family with your health concerns.  By knowing the signs and symptoms of a stroke, you could save a life – maybe even yours. 

Signs and Symptoms of a Stroke
1. Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
2. Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
3. Sudden trouble seeing or blurred vision in one or both eyes
4. Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
5. Sudden severe headache with no known cause

If you, or someone you love, experiences even one of these, quick action is needed.  Within five minutes, call 9-1-1.  With stroke, time is of the essence.  Time lost = brain lose. 

To learn more about current efforts and to show your legislators that these health issues are important to you, please visit our Take Action center to send your supportive message today and encourage others to send a message through Facebook

Yesterday was a day of flowers and cards, today can be about lifesaving information.  Share information on stroke with all of the women in your life!

Signs and Symptoms of a Stroke

1. Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
2. Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
3. Sudden trouble seeing or blurred vision in one or both eyes
4. Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
5. Sudden severe headache with no known cause

To learn more about current efforts and to show your legislators that these health issues are important to you, please visit our Take Action center to send your supportive message today and encourage others to send a message through Facebook.

Paula and Ella Marie Hatten West Virginia

On May 6, 2011, our beautiful daughter, Ella Marie, was born. On May 7th, we found out Ella Marie was among the 1 in 100 children born with a congenital heart defect. Ella's CHD is called Tetralogy of Fallot and required her to have open heart surgery at 8 weeks old. She also will need more corrective surgeries in the future.

Of all the worries that new parents have, our daughter having a CHD was not even on our radar. We had never heard of Tetralogy of Fallot or any other CHD for that matter. We did not know any warning signs to look for or any questions to ask our doctor. Our goal as a family is to raise more awareness of congenital heart defects.

We were very happy about Corbin's Bill passing and West Virginia being one of the first states that will now require Pulse Ox to be included in newborn screenings. Our family and friends participated in the Charleston American Heart Walk on September 8th in honor of Ella and hope to do much more to raise awareness for Ella and her other heart warriors!

Lisa Hamrick West Virginia

I remember riding with my parents and sisters in our station wagon as we made our way to my grandparents' house in Euclid, Ohio. I was going to be entering the Cleveland Clinic in a few days for heart surgery. We were fortunate that my Mom's parents lived so close to the Clinic. I was 19 years old at the time and had just completed my junior year of college--it was the summer of 1983.

I had what I would call the typical childhood growing up in the 1970s. I remember playing outside for hours and riding our bikes all over the neighborhood. And who could forget those pogo sticks we all had to have? I don't remember when I started experiencing issues with my heart, only that in junior high I passed out during a choir concert.  I recall being told not to stand with your knees locked.

I graduated from high school and began my college life at Alderson-Broaddus College. I began feeling very tired all the time so my Dad got an appointment for me with his cardiologist. You see, Dad has lived with heart disease his entire adult life. Dad's cardiologist examined me and did an echocardiogram in his office and could tell right away what my problem was. I had patent ductus arteriosus.  PDA is a condition in which a blood vessel, called the ductus arteriosus, fails to close normally in an infant soon after birth. This condition leads to heart murmur, as well as abnormal blood flow between the aorta and pulmonary artery. The doctor said my heart was working harder than it should due to the abnormal blood flow. I had been living with this problem since birth! At that time, no one in WV was performing surgical repair of PDA in adults, so my journey to Cleveland began.

I realize now that I was fortunate to survive with the condition undetected for so long. The surgery went well and I spent a few weeks at my grandparents' house recuperating. That was almost 30 years ago.

I tell my story in hopes of raising awareness in women that heart disease is not just a man's disease. We as women are the caretakers and superwomen who do it all at home and at work and we tend  to put ourselves last. You must take care of your heart so you will be around to receive all that love you give brought back to you!

Ruth Caruthers West Virginia

Corbin Walker Caruthers was born 364 days after his older brother Colton. I had a "normal" pregnancy, regular checkups, and when my water broke the morning after Colton's first birthday, I went into the hospital expecting hours of labor and a healthy baby. I ended up having a last minute c-section and what looked like a healthy baby, but the doctor informed me that Corbin had a heart murmur.

We were scheduled for an echo a couple days later. The first echo was inconclusive, so we were to come back two days later for another. This time, we were given the full diagnosis: Corbin had life threatening heart defects and needed to heart surgery to save his life. Five hours later, Corbin was in Ruby Memorial hospital awaiting surgery.

Three months later, three heart surgeries, and countless IV's and medications later, Corbin's heart stopped. It was about 8:45 on May 17th when they called us to say they were giving him CPR and we needed to come quickly. We watched as a team of doctors and nurses tried their hardest to save Corbin, but it was too late. 

Corbin's story does not end there. A few months after he passed away, I teamed up with two heart moms and the American Heart Association to introduce a bill that would require every newborn in WV to be tested for heart defects. Corbin's Bill passed in a record three months. The hospital where he was born implemented pulse ox screening August 1st, 2012, and many more are to follow. Corbin's story continues on and through his legacy, we are saving lives. 

Bruce Adkins West Virginia

OK… I had lost 30 pounds, was walking, exercising daily, and was getting “fitter."  I had even just been to Alaska and done a mountain hike the week prior, attended a Cincinnati Reds game with my family and walked several miles 3 days before, on my 59^th birthday!  But on May 24^th, while attending a regional playoff high school baseball game, I began having nausea and abdominal pain.  I shrugged this off as “eating something bad” earlier in the day, but the severe nausea didn’t go away.  I really didn’t have typical symptoms of a heart attack.

I was in good shape, was not obese, and recent lab work and physical didn’t point to any cardiovascular issues. I do have a strong family history of heart disease. With my symptoms actually getting a little worse, I chose to drive home from the game (at this point I really wasn’t considering calling 911 or going to the hospital).  However, on the way home I became more ill and started having some diaphoresis and left shoulder chest pain.  I thought, “GOSH! This could be my heart!”  

So, after taking 3 aspirin I happened to have in the car and being just about 5-6 minutes away, I chose to drive myself to the local cardiac hospital.  After some excitement in the ER, I was rushed to the cath lab where my right coronary artery was found to be 90 percent occluded and in severe spasm. I am now the proud owner of a 30 mm stent! 

I have just walked in my first Heart Walk with many new friends and family!  I am blessed (and lucky) to be completing cardiac rehabilitation and have significantly increased my stamina and exercise tolerance. I just celebrated my granddaughter’s first birthday, and am planning for many more!  My story is another one about doing many things wrong and still surviving. I hope with education and advances in medicine, more people will survive and live wonderful lives.

Traveling to DC with the American Heart Association just two days before my birthday was not only an honor, but also a bittersweet experience. Since losing my son, Corbin, to heart defects and helping to pass a pulse ox bill in West Virginia, I have been blessed to be a part of the American Heart Association and to travel to events like this one. Being able to participate and help be a part of history is simply amazing.

During the application process I was praying to get selected and as once I was, I could not wait! During my two hour drive to the airport, I had a lot of time to think about how I got to this point in my life and the amazing opportunities I have been granted.

Corbin's short life has changed my whole world in sad ways, but also in good ways. I have become part of a loving and passionate group of parents, intent on saving babies' lives, and have also become part of something bigger than myself or Corbin: the world of advocacy.

When I arrived in DC, I was shocked to see the cherry blossoms blooming--a true sign from Corbin that this opportunity was part of what I am meant to do. I was excited to meet other advocates and volunteers to talk more about what I'm passionate about: pulse ox screening. I loved being able to talk to others who have been where I have and understand my passion.

I was proud to be the only representative from West Virginia and did my best to make a good impression and hopefully get support from our state's delegates! Afterwards I felt a huge sense of accomplishment and success. It was like a Corbin was right there with me.

I am a mother.
I am a wife.
I am an advocate.
I am Corbin's mom and I help save babies.