The Cardiac Wellness Care program at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is marking 25 years of helping people across the region recover from a cardiac event. It first opened in June 2001 and now operates out of three locations-the Petro Family Exercise Centre at the Tayfour Campus of Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor, the Leamington Nature Fresh Farms Recreation Complex, and the Bob Probert Tecumseh Campus. The program provides cardiac rehabilitation and prevention through expert medical care, education, exercise, and ongoing support. Medical Director of the Cardiac Wellness Centre at Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare, Dr. Martin McFarlane, who helped launch the program, says surviving longer after a cardiac event includes risk factor modification. “One of the advantages of the maintenance program is that once we have people down the right path, which goes for all of our graduates, we hope patients continue a heart-healthy diet and regular exercise. Also, to the listeners out there, a healthy diet and exercise are good for everybody before a heart attack,” he says. The program supports an average of more than 400 patients each week, ranging in age from 20 to 95 years. McFarlane says this program has had a huge impact. “We know the benefit of cardiac rehab. Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer of Canadians. We are concerned about people with cancer, but we can’t forget that heart attacks and strokes have a huge impact on all of us in terms of family, friends, and our community,” he says. Sonya Vani, a member of the HDGH team, suffered a cardiac event in 2006 at the age of 37 and went through the program. She says she had led a very healthy lifestyle and wasn’t sure if she’d be able to get back to that before entering the program. “Having the education sessions, I knew what to look for and diet changes that might need to be made. They helped guide and supervise my exercise so I could get back to running long distances again, which was really meaningful to my life because you have so many friends around you doing certain activities that you want to know if you’ll be able to do that with my friends again,” she says. Since 2013 alone, the program has served 7,161 unique patients and supported 83,233 patient visits.
