News Release: Emory Healthcare
Feb. 10, 2009
Beating Heart Disease and Living Well
Keep your heart healthy with the Make Every Day Count calendar from Emory Healthcare.What:
The physicians and staff at Emory's Center for Heart Failure Therapy and Transplantation will host a free seminar about managing heart failure and related conditions. The topics covered will provide helpful information about ways to improve self-care that lead to better health outcomes. Media will have an opportunity to speak with physicians and staff regarding the latest breakthroughs in cardiac care, as well as a patient.
When:
Wednesday, Feb. 11 from 10:30 a.m. to Noon
Emory Crawford Long Hospital Glenn Building
550 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, GA 30308
Who:
Patient Interview Profile
Media will have an opportunity to interview an inspiring patient, Scott McCoy, who suffered a heart attack and progressive deterioration to severe end-stage heart disease, and is enjoying life now — even mountain biking — after undergoing an implant of a left ventricle assist (LVAD) device at Emory University Hospital.
Heart attack was not a word in Scott McCoy's vocabulary until Oct. 1, 2006. Before that time McCoy ate well, worked out four days a week, enjoyed advanced level kayaking, guided whitewater rafting trips on weekends and had a successful career in public health. However, at the age of 54, an extended history of heart disease in his family and periodic smoking for 30 years caught up with him.
It had been 15 months since the initial heart attack that launched this series of events and McCoy definitely wanted a change. "We had exhausted all treatment options up to that point," says McCoy. "Fortunately, my cardiologist knew of the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) studies being conducted at Emory University Hospital, and I was admitted to Emory for evaluation." An LVAD is a blood pump that assists the left side of the heart with pumping blood to the rest of the body and is used in some patients with advanced heart failure.
Media MUST CONFIRM ATTENDANCE in advance with Lance Skelly by calling 404-290-0653 or via e-mail at lance.skelly@emoryhealthcare.org. Media members will receive parking details upon confirmation.
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The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University is an academic health science and service center focused on missions of teaching, research, health care and public service. Its components include schools of medicine, nursing, and public health; Yerkes National Primate Research Center; the Emory Winship Cancer Institute; and Emory Healthcare, the largest, most comprehensive health system in Georgia. The Woodruff Health Sciences Center has a $2.3 billion budget, 17,000 employees, 2,300 full-time and 1,900 affiliated faculty, 4,300 students and trainees, and a $4.9 billion economic impact on metro Atlanta.
Learn more about Emory’s health sciences:
Blog: http://emoryhealthblog.com
Twitter: @emoryhealthsci
Web: http://emoryhealthsciences.org
