Cousins Reconnect and Mentor Others During Cardiac Rehab at Silver Cross Hospital

Although they both live in Orland Park, cousins Bob Callahan and Neil Coleman said they’d see each other only at family events. But since July, they have seen each other three times a week during cardiac rehabilitation therapy at Silver Cross Hospital.

Lifesaving Heart Scan

Coleman, 67, saw an ad for $49 Heart Scans at Silver Cross and decided to get one. “I expected they’d say everything looked fine,” he explains. “It didn’t.” Coleman learned he would need 17 stents, which wasn’t medically feasible.

Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Pat Pappas performed a quadruple bypass in May, and Coleman was in Silver Cross Hospital for five days.

Models and Mentors

Five weeks later, Coleman was scheduled for Cardiac Rehab at Silver Cross. Thirty-six sessions, three days a week for 90 minutes. His cousin would also be starting cardiac rehab.

“He asked if it was possible to be scheduled at the same times,” said Kim Mason, Clinical Director of Cardiac Rehab at Silver Cross. “We arranged that.”

Callahan and Coleman have been models for the other patients attending rehab there. “They’ll get there early, see new patients and talk to them about what to expect. And when one of the patients graduates from rehab, they’ll give them a little gift. They bond with people,” added Mason.

Callahan said the staff has been great. “They keep an eye on you. The whole team. They are just wonderful.”

Mason said they get a lot of patients like Coleman, who opted to have a heart scan.

“I would get chest pains now and then, but they would go away,” explained Coleman. “I figured it was normal. My doctor said, ‘That’s not normal,’ and referred me to a cardiologist immediately.’”

What About Bob?

Neither the chest pains nor hearing about his cousin’s impending heart surgery figured in his getting the scan. Callahan, now 69, said his primary care physician picked up an odd sound in his heart during a routine checkup and scheduled him for a stress test. The test showed an abnormality, and he was scheduled for an angiogram. He would end up having aortic valve surgery.

He had no symptoms before the checkup.

“That’s what’s scary,” he said. “I’ve always been into exercising and eating right. I would recommend Silver Cross to anyone.”

To learn more about the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at Silver Cross Hospital, visit silvercross.org.