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How a life-saving transplant transformed my life

| Annemarie Ward shares her journey of keeping hope alive amidst heart disease | NEARLY 15 YEARS AGO, Annemarie Ward was walking the family’s three dogs with her mother Polly and sister Emily when she collapsed. At age seven, Annemarie had suffered a heart attack. She was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or enlargement of the…
Pop Quiz: Maintaining optimal optical health

| Understanding the causes of low vision and taking precautions as you age | EYESIGHT is a precious thing, and unfortunately there are many threats to optimal optical health. One common eye problem is low vision, and it affects seniors the most. Low vision, in its simplest terms, is any vision loss that interferes with…
Celebrating Black History Month with a look at local African-Americans in medicine

ALEX ALEXANDER Registered Nurse Bartow Regional Medical Center As a black registered nurse from North Carolina, 56-year-old Alex Alexander has had his run-ins with prejudice. But he’s learned to remember who he is, treat others like his brothers and sisters, forgive, and … not believe everything he hears. “You earn things by your merit and…

THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC: STILL A PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY

By Chukwuka Okafor, MD, MBA, CIME, FAAOS On Thursday October 26, 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services declared America’s Opioid Crisis a public health emergency. Drug overdose is the single most common cause of death for people under 50 years old in the United States, more so than gun fatalities and auto accidents;…
Living With Heart Failure

Congestive Heart Failure: the term conjures up visions of a death sentence. And, understandably so. The mortality from this diagnosis is more than all cancers in the United States, even if the latter diagnosis scares people a lot more. However, with right treatment and management, most patients can get better and live a better life.…
Glaucoma and Dry Eyes

Eye doctors are excited this year with 2020 rolling in. It’s an excellent opportunity for us to shine some light on eye care topics that we would like to highlight. January is Glaucoma Awareness Month. Over 2 million Americans are affected by glaucoma. With proper treatment, the vast majority will not go blind from…