As an occupational therapy assistant at Hillcrest Medical Center and a member of the Oklahoma Stroke & Neurological Institute stroke team, Brook Hinton started taking a closer look at her own health in 2014. “I was seeing patients come in younger and younger with strokes,” she says. “I realized that I had some of the…

“I just thought it was heartburn.” Michael Mace recalls the scene four days after his 50th birthday, while he ate a sandwich at Subway: “I was with my fiancé, Patricia, and we were traveling from Stroud to Claremore and had stopped to eat a late lunch when I started feeling sick.” Michael had been fighting similar…

When James Wilson, RN, arrived in Tulsa, he had worked out the logistics of a cross-country move, job transfer to the Oklahoma Wonder Bread division and began a new role as caregiver. The route salesman of seven years had a new territory to learn and new drivers to train. He also had the added responsibility,…

New research on transcaval TAVR was presented today which demonstrated a new approach to performing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) to be safe and effective for patients who may otherwise have very limited options. Oklahoma Heart Institute (OHI) was one of three top medical centers in the U.S. who enrolled patients in the study. “We continue to…

Coneil Lafarlette has remained active and healthy throughout her life, so she was surprised when she suddenly felt like she had the flu with aches all over her body and trouble breathing. After these symptoms persisted for almost a week, she tried to take her pulse but couldn’t find it. She then asked her daughter…

When Charlotte Wells went to see her primary care doctor for heart-related issues, she thought she had a heart arrhythmia. But when Charlotte continued to get worse, she knew something wasn’t right. Her doctor then requested she come in for an EKG the next time her heart monitor went off. Once her doctor performed an EKG and…

Heart disease doesn’t have a “look.” If it did, Master Sergeant Chris Clifton, 42, certainly wouldn’t fit the description. Last October, his unit – the 219th Engineering Installation Squadron with the 138th Fighter Wing of the Tulsa Air National Guard – was scheduled to deploy to Japan. Clifton had given up his spot, so that a younger…

“I was just sitting here one morning and felt a little funny,” Vernon Sander, 71, recalls of a day in the spring of 2010 that didn’t begin like most. Enjoying retirement, Vernon and his wife were just a few weeks away from an anticipated trip to Europe. When he became nauseous, Vernon says a strong…

February is Heart Month, and it gives us the opportunity to not only talk about heart health, but hear other people’s own stories. On National Wear Red Day, the Rogers County Sherriff’s Office shared a story that told the side of living with heart disease from a spouse’s perspective. It begins, “The following is a…