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David Hubbard, 50, pays close attention to detail. The associate-senior project manager with a local architectural firm easily recalls the month-long journey from hospitals, Emergency Departments, doctors’ offices and operating rooms that led to a tearful exchange between his wife, Pam, and Oklahoma Heart Institute cardiologist Dr. Kyle Zimmerman. “They hugged and cried a bit,” David…

Diet, exercise and medication therapies are the first defense against high cholesterol, especially high LDL levels, for many patients. However, some people do not respond despite best efforts. Having dangerously high cholesterol levels can lead to heart disease, blockages and stroke. Oklahoma Heart Institute now offers patients an option, which has proven to lower cholesterol…

Marcia MacLeod, WPX Energy Executive, shares her powerful story for the 2014 Tulsa Go Red for Women luncheon May 9, 2014, discussing how heart disease was an unexpected interruption to her life and career. Marcia was referred to Oklahoma Heart Institute cardiac electrophysiologist Dr. David Sandler, who diagnosed her with the most common heart arrhythmia…

In Oklahoma, we are relatively new to the game, but as our Thunder continue to move closer to The Finals, we seem to be getting the handle of the NBA. Even casual basketball fans are more than familiar with our hometown heroes Westbrook, Ibaka and KD. Without an NBA team to call our own in…

Two new studies look at transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) as improving the survival rates of high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis versus traditional surgical valve replacement and compare leading FDA-approved valves available, the Edwards Sapien XT and Medtronic’s CoreValve. Director of Structural Heart Disease and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement at Oklahoma Heart Institute, Dr. Kamran…

This summer Neva Terry will celebrate her 73rd birthday in June. The following month marks her second anniversary since being diagnosed and treated for heart disease. “My only hope was to live at least a month to see my middle grandson marry,” admits Neva of being told she had severe heart block. “Now it has been two…

At the age of 33, Melissa Futrell went to the Emergency Department when a bad headache wouldn’t go away. She had started to slur her speech and wasn’t sure what was causing her symptoms. She was diagnosed with a “complex migraine” and referred to a neurologist. Melissa started medication for the migraine, but also noticed…

As the saying goes, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” While researchers have long known the health benefits of eating a diet high in fiber, new research points to one large benefit for heart attack victims – survival. The study of survivors of myocardial infarction found an increased fiber intake, especially of cereal…

Oklahoma Heart Institute was the first in Oklahoma to implant the Medtronic Reveal LINQ Insertable Cardiac Monitoring System in two patients this week. This device is the smallest cardiac monitoring system available and is one-third the size of a AAA battery, making it 80 percent smaller than other implantable cardiac monitoring systems. This device allows…

Danielle LeVeck, RN, BSN, CCRN, and Vic Tackett, RN, BSN, CCRN, couldn’t imagine doing anything different than working as cardiac critical care nurses at Oklahoma Heart Institute.  It is a path neither started on, however, as they worked towards their college degrees, but yet it has led them to CV ICU on the third floor at the hospital. Their…