Pediatric cardiologists also treat adults
Tracey Schuerman, 40, is a bit mature to be seen by a pediatric cardiologist. But, as Dr. Carl Garabedian explained recently, pediatric cardiologists also treat adult patients with congenital heart problems.
Garabedian, a Spokane pediatric cardiologist, recently fixed a faulty valve in Schuerman’s heart using a minimally invasive procedure. He threaded a catheter through an artery to her heart and inflated a small balloon to open a narrowed valve.
He’s experienced in manipulating catheters to fix the tiny hearts of babies and children, so he felt confident doing the procedure. In the past, a Spokane patient like Schuerman would be referred to doctors in Seattle, Garabedian said.
Schuerman spent only one night at Sacred Heart Medical Center. One week after the procedure, she was back at work part time at her father’s business, Can-Am Body Shop in Spokane.
Her heart problem, a narrowed mitral valve, has been with her since birth. But it didn’t cause much trouble until she had a baby in 1993. A long labor stressed her heart and triggered a serious crisis. Schuerman spent several days in intensive care after giving birth to her daughter, Stephanie.
Schuerman didn’t get a diagnosis of the mitral valve problem until March of 1994. As the years went by, she felt more weakness during exercise, and eventually had trouble climbing stairs.
She is grateful to Dr. Doug Wysham, her first heart doctor, and to Garabedian, the pediatric heart doctor who also treats grown-ups.
“He told me that in three weeks I should feel a lot younger than I do now,” Schuerman said.
Hearing loss preschool
A new preschool for children with hearing loss will open next month on the Riverpoint campus of Washington State University, Spokane.
The preschool will hold an open house Thursday at 7 p.m. The school is located in the Health Sciences Building, 310 N. Riverpoint Blvd.
The program, called Hearing Oral Program of Excellence (H.O.P.E.), uses a language-rich environment designed to encourage children to talk. Children with normal hearing are welcome and can benefit from the program. Class sizes are limited to six to eight children.
The program is a cooperative effort among Spokane-area parents and professionals. Also involved are WSU’s Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Eastern Washington University’s Department of Communication Disorders and both schools’ cooperative graduate program, University Programs in Communication Disorders.
The staff will include a teacher, an instructional aide, a speech-language pathologist and an audiologist. Assisting will be graduate students in speech-language pathology and audiology.
Space is available for the fall. Tuition varies and is based on ability to pay. For more information, contact Doreen Nicholas at (509) 358-7597.
A role for parents
Are you sending a son or daughter to college in the fall? Do you know the school’s policy on drinking?
There’s a Web page that can link you to college alcohol policies across the nation. It’s part of a college drinking prevention Web site sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Find the site at www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov.
While you’re there, take a look at NIAAA’s brochure “What Parents Need to Know About College Drinking.” The brochure includes tips such as “Call your son or daughter frequently during the first six weeks of college.”
A 2002 report on college drinking commissioned by the NIAAA estimated that 1,400 college students die each year from alcohol use, either because of drinking and driving or from alcohol toxicity.
Heart health
A review of research between 1994 and 2002 finds little evidence for taking antioxidant supplements, such as vitamin E, to prevent or treat heart disease.
The review was published as a scientific advisory in the Aug. 3 issue of “Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.”
The heart association continues to recommend a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, legumes, poultry and lean meats is better. Read more at www.americanheart.org.