Group helps “mend” hearts in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS - Sometimes it takes outside help to mend a heart.

Members of a Cedar Rapids group have been doing that for 20 years.

“You're just one beat away from eternity,” says Carol Hayek, president of the local chapter of Mended Hearts, whose members - all heart disease survivors - visit hospitalized cardiac patients. “I give them the good word that there's life after heart disease.”

Mended Hearts marks its 20th anniversary in Cedar Rapids  this year and is spreading the word during February about American Heart Month, a time to raise awareness about cardiovascular disease. The national Mended Hearts organization celebrates 60 years this year.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three Americans has some form of heart disease, such as severe chest pain, heart attacks, heart failure and stroke.

Hospital stays have shortened since Hayek, 77, had a heart attack at age 69, but the members' visiting schedule three days per week generally catches any patient who wants a visit before being discharged.

Owner of the Carpet Chalet in Cedar Rapids, Hayek says he had just returned home from church and was planning to do yard work when he suffered a heart attack, with pains in his chest, arms and under his neck. He was hospitalized and had a stent placement.

His family insisted he retire that day - son Tim Hayek now heads the company - but Carol Hayek wanted to stay busy.

Years visiting with customers made him a natural for his role in Mended Hearts.

Hayek and the group's other trained members take turns visiting patients at St. Luke's Hospital and Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids.

“People like to talk about what they've been through,” he says, noting members listen and let patients direct the conversation. “They want to know what happened to you, too. We're still living and we've gone through it.”

Hayek recalls an older man who spoke about his World War II experience.

“It probably took his mind off why he was there,” he says.

Members cannot answer medical questions, but Hayek tells them what has worked for him, when asked.

Keys to his health include exercise and moderation in eating.

“It does play a mind game with you,” Hayek says. “Don't just sit around and feel sorry for yourself. Go and keep living, but do it in a moderate way.”

Mended Hearts has chapters throughout the United States, but the Cedar Rapids group, with about 60 members, is one of just a few to sew and donate special heart pillows to patients who have had open heart surgery.

Since 1998, members have given away about 4,500 of the pillows, which patients hold to their chest when needed after surgery.

“It relieves the pain for them as they cough,” Hayek says. “I have yet to hear from a person who doesn't like them.”

Volunteer Ann Picray, 66, of Cedar Rapids, sews her own material or donated pieces into heart shapes that are stuffed during group meetings. Another volunteer, Maxine Hawes, 87, of Cedar Rapids, sews the pillows shut.

Audrey Wirtner, a staff nurse at St. Luke's cardiothoracic surgery unit, says some patients have nurses sign their pillows as a memento.

“It's kind of a token of what they've been through,” she says.

New Mended Hearts member Brenda Secoy looks forward to sewing pillows and visiting patients once her training is completed.

Secoy, 51, of North Liberty, had heart valve surgery last year at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

“So much is going through your head. You just want to see that someone's gone through what you've gone through and that they've survived it,” she says. “It's a scary thing. You just need to hear from someone who's been through it.”

FYI

For more information on Mended Hearts, see:

www.mendedhearts.org or call Carol Hayek at: (319) 848-7425.

For information about American Heart Month, see: www.millionhearts.hhs.gov/index.html