Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008
Surrounded by former and current patients, former County Councilman Thomas Hendershot recalled the last time he set foot inside Cheverly’s Prince George’s Hospital Center’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Center following a November 2004 quadruple bypass heart surgery at the hospital.
‘‘Like the rest of you or most of you here, I’m an alumni of the closet,” Hendershot said.
The ‘‘closet” Hendershot referred to was the once 400-square-foot center crammed with stationary bikes and treadmills used to regain the strength zapped following cardiac surgery. A bright red ribbon spanned the center’s doorframe Tuesday to mark the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center’s grand re-opening, which includes an expansion to 1,200 square feet and additional exercise equipment.
Former and past patients, nurses and staff gathered on the hospital’s fourth floor to celebrate the re-opening. Renovations for the more than $50,000 project began the first week of January and required knocking down several walls to expand the space by 800 square feet. Inside are a set of free weights and 10 machines, including treadmills, stationary bikes and a NuStep machine that allows patients to work muscles in their arms and their legs by mimicking a walking motion, which also benefits patients with recent hip and knee replacements.
The center opened in 1997 and Michele Larson, Cardiac Rehabilitation program manager, has run the program since 2000. Larson has worked as a registered nurse at the hospital for 15 years.
Larson said she expects the number of patients using the center after cardiac surgery to increase with the expanded space. Twenty-five patients currently use the center three times a week for a 12-week period. Larson said the only other county hospital offering a cardiac rehabilitation center is Lanham’s Doctors Community Hospital.
Larson said the new space would allow nurses to facilitate group rehabilitation sessions, allow family members to observe the sessions and be more handicapped-accessible.
‘‘People with wheelchairs and walkers had to stand in the hallway,” Larson said. ‘‘There was always a wait for equipment.”
Hyattsville resident Cassandra Pitt, 55, began rehabilitation classes Feb. 8 following open heart surgery in December 2007. Pitt said the program is helping her build strength and keeping her from being depressed and becoming weaker after lying around the house. Pitt said the care of the center’s staff made her ‘‘feel whole.”
‘‘It’s a lovely place,” Pitt said. ‘‘It’s like a family. It’s a good place to come to. You don’t feel like you’re in this by yourself. You don’t feel alone.”
In the center of the room are eight telemetry heart monitors hooked up to one computer. Patients attach wire patches from the monitors to their chest while a nurse monitors their heart rates. There is one nurse for every four patients. All patients’ blood pressures are taken before and after the sessions, and a progress letter is sent to each patient’s physician halfway through the rehabilitation process.
Washington, D.C., resident Joseph Bennett, 62, began rehabilitation nearly three years ago after going into cardiac arrest during a color guard practice in the Glenarden Woods Elementary School parking lot. He needed an emergency angioplasty, or widening of clogged blood vessels.
Bennett took 15 sessions for three and a half months and remembers having to wait 30 minutes, 40 minutes or even an hour before he could touch a treadmill or stationary bike because of space constraints. But even with limited space, Bennett, who now does follow up appointments at the District’s Washington Hospital Center, credits Larson for getting him on the road to recovery.
‘‘Additional space, additional seating, additional equipment certainly are things we more than just needed,” Bennett said.
Hendershot, who remembers when there were about two or three stationary bikes and one treadmill to work with, said he told his council colleagues that the program deserved expansion. He added that the hospital could benefit economically since patients do not need to have surgery at Prince George’s Hospital to attend its rehabilitation program.
Hendershot, who finished rehabilitation in winter 2005, credited Larson and her dedication to expanding the program for her patients.
‘‘Let me say to you that the people in Prince George’s County deserve all the bells and whistles and equipment and care that rich folks are getting in the region,” Hendershot said.
E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.
