Carolinas HealthCare System Team

Multitasking moms listen up! Carolinas Healthcare System has a program perfect for a busy mom looking to bundle exercise, family time and a little one-on-one with a doctor! Every third Saturday of the month, physicians from CHS and Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute gather at Freedom Park (9 a.m., near the duck pond) for “Walk With A Doc,” a free program that offers patients the opportunity to walk through the park while talking with healthcare providers.

This Saturday, Dr. David Pearson, an emergency room physician at Carolinas Medical Center, will be on hand to talk about CPR and AEDs (automated external defibrillator) – often located in public areas like airports and office buildings in case of sudden cardiac emergencies. North Carolina is leading an initiative to decrease sudden cardiac death by 50 percent over the next five year. To achieve this goal, the public must learn how to identify a person who is experiencing a cardiac emergency – and how to respond.

Extraordinary Patients. Extraordinary Care.

In 2011, Reagan Smith’s Porter Ridge Red Sox won the National Little League Championship. But less than one year later, the third grader was facing a very different challenge as he underwent heart surgery at Levine Children’s Hospital for a congenital heart condition.

In April 2012, just two months after open heart surgery, Reagan stepped up to the pitchers mound ready to play just days after being released from the hospital. And to make the event extra special, his surgeon, Dr. Thomas Maxey with Levine Children’s Hospital, was there to catch the first pitch.

“I suspect he’ll have a full recovery. The chances of needing further heart surgery are about as close to zero as you can get! So that’s great news,” said Thomas Maxey, MD.

Apps can provide more than education and entertainment for the kids. Now, healthcare apps are helping patients and physicians connect in more meaningful ways. A new app created by Carolinas HealthCare System is helping patients considering hernia repair help predict their chances of experiencing chronic pain and discomfort after a hernia operation.

The app, CeQOL, which stands for Carolinas Equation of Quality of Life, is available for free download. It is aimed at men, who comprise the majority of hernia patients.

As reported in Wall Street Journal last month, more than 30% of patients may experience chronic discomfort and pain after hernia surgery. The pain is often linked to surgical mesh and other devices used to repair the hernia, a bulge of the intestine or body fat through a weak area in the abdomen. It can also be a result of internal damage done to the body by the hernia itself before surgery.

You’re going to want to bookmark this one, Smarties. I’ve had my share of poison consumption with a set of boy twins! ~Jen P

It’s a Saturday morning and you are busy fixing breakfast, getting your 6-year-old ready for his soccer game and throwing a load of laundry in the dryer before you head out the door. You walk in the laundry room for one second. When you get back to the kitchen to finish cooking, you notice that your other 2-year-old has some of the laundry detergent in her mouth. You frantically wipe out your child’s mouth and rush her to the Emergency Room. However, did you know that Carolinas Poison Center handles cases like this 24/7 over the phone for free, giving you immediate peace of mind? Your doctor uses Carolinas Poison Center, too, when he or she needs advice helping patients who’ve come in contact with a ‘poison’.

You see the simple joy of playing every day. Our children do it with ease. Can we do it too? What was your idea of fun as a child? Jumping rope? Playing hopscotch? Climbing trees? As a child, did you have any idea how many calories you were burning? Maybe not then, but as mom’s with little time to exercise, consider some playful ways to get your heart pumping, muscles stretching and lungs expanding.

Try these tips for putting the fun back into fitness:

Our heels are made for walking – and sprinting! The second Stiletto Sprint brought hundreds of cancer survivors and supporters together, and raised more than $80,000, to support the fight against ovarian cancer on April 28, 2012.

The Sprint, which took place at SouthPark Mall and involved more than 400 people, was presented by The Bissell Companies and benefitted the Carolinas Ovarian Cancer Fund at Levine Cancer Institute.

Vaccinations are one of the hottest debated topics among parents. And there is a new statistic to keep the debate alive.

The Center for Disease Control recently announced that measles cases tripled to 222 in 2011 compared to only 60 cases per year between 2001-2010. The cause is believed to be associated with international travel- especially by those who are unvaccinated and family concerns around vaccinations.

It was a busy week for healthcare. Here is a quick summary so you are “in the know”.

Carolinas HealthCare System to open behavioral health hospital.

“We are eager to move forward with this project and begin building on our promise to provide more behavioral health services for those who desperately need them in our community,” said Dr. Roger Ray, Chief Medical Officer of CHS.

The state of North Carolina began down-sizing state psychiatric hospitals following the passage of the Mental Health Reform Act of 2001. To date, about half of the state-operated hospital beds have closed.

“The reality today is that many people in our community are in a state of crisis and need the help and assistance that the behavioral health hospital will bring,” said the Rev. Farrell Lemmings, lead pastor at Grace Covenant Church in Cornelius.

Running uphill never sounded so good! It will be a challenge – but for a great cause!

The Carolina Panthers and Levine Children’s Hospital (LCH) are ramping up for their second “stadium run” to support local pediatric cancer research. It’s the Keep Pounding 5K Stadium Run, presented by North Highland Consulting.

This unique event, scheduled for this Saturday, May 19, at 8 a.m., features a mostly uphill course that begins on Morehead Street and enters Bank of America Stadium through the North Gate. Participants will have the exclusive opportunity to run a challenging course through Bank of America Stadium and finish out on the field. The course begins on the CMC Main campus on Harding near Morehead Street, continues up “mount Morehead” to the Bank of America Stadium. Runners enter the stadium campus at the South Gate, run half a lap around the outside of the stadium and enter through the North Gate. From there runners will climb the ramps to the 500 level, run one lap around and descend to the zero level. They will run through the “Cat Tunnel” to finish on the field, surrounded by Sir Purr and the Top Cats. As they cross the finish line, runners’ images will be flashed onto the stadium jumbotron.

“How is fireworks?”

The illogical sentence was all that the normally articulate Joan Hampton, mother of three, could get down on paper as she lay in her hospital bed and tried to communicate with her family following her stroke.

Call it a silver lining of sorts, but as Joan recalls, the period immediately following her stroke was the first time that she truly identified with her 14-year-old son, whose autism makes it difficult to express his thoughts. “Now I understand,” Joan says, remembering how frustrating it was to converse then.

It would be the first of many revelations for Joan, who, at the age of 45, was considered young by stroke standards. Her lack of any typical risk factors—such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, smoking and obesity—also made her an unusual candidate for stroke.