Patient Stories

For Bruce Brown, violinist and violin-maker, who had never undergone any kind of surgery or had any major health problems, the news that he needed quadruple coronary bypass surgery was devastating.Six months later and fully recovered, he and his wife Susie celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary with a trip to Italy.

Darrell Green was “perfectly healthy” most of his life. He walked regularly and lifted weights three times a week. But that changed in 1999 when he had the first of three heart attacks.

Sixty percent of Americans don’t exercise regularly, and 25 percent aren’t active at all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But 73 year old Don Franklin is proud to say he doesn’t fit either of those statistics.

Two things are striking about Edith Barnette: she does not look 91 years old, and she does not look like she recently had triple vessel bypass surgery. However, both of these things are true.

Jeanne Overton of Ashland describes herself as “a 35-year-old woman in an 83-year-old body.” The vivacious lady leads a busy life centered around her church – filled with services, Bible study, the ladies fellowship group, and as a worship leader with the choir.

John Miller and Nola Howell are two of the nearly 1,000 successful graduates of the KDMC Tobacco Cessation program. Both now are tobacco-free thanks to the support and advice they received as part of our medically supervised program.

A weekend ski trip to Maryland, then off to Rome to see the Vatican – not bad for a 79-year-old woman who just three days before had balloon angioplasty and a stent.

Leota Daniels of Catlettsburg was having foot trouble. In fact, her entire left leg hurt. The leg and foot were ice cold, and she found it increasingly difficult to walk. The nurses had a hard time finding a pulse in her foot. But her doctor, vascular and endovascular surgeon Omran Abul-Khoudoud, M.D., advised Daniels to tolerate the pain a bit longer.

Last March, 52-year-old Mark Bailey took some time off from work for what he thought would be back surgery. He and his wife Jayne were stunned when the surgeon told them that pre-op testing revealed Mark had Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Like many people her age, Sharon Wycoff, 68, is a retiree who hasn’t slowed down. After working 30 years as a pharmacy technician at a local hospital, the Ironton native began a second career working four days a week in retail sales. She walks three miles a day, bikes, swims laps in her pool, and loves to go out dancing.

Terry Lowe has been a drummer for more than 40 years, traveling all over the country and on cruise ships in the Bahamas with various musicians to make his living. Except for a bout with acid reflux and a hiatal hernia in 1992, he has been healthy.

William Adkins was on the job one afternoon in early January when he started having troubling symptoms – heavy sweating, weakness, shortness of breath, pain in his chest. The office secretary knew it was serious and drove him to the nearby King’s Daughters Flatwoods Family Care Center.