Covenant Health South helps patients regain strength in cardiac rehab

Seymour is in the heart of a region that’s within a day’s drive from Kim Arnott’s family, including his 43 grandchildren. When he and his wife decided to make the move from Virginia to Tennessee for retirement, they had no idea that his heart was about to be in peril.

Covenant Health South was ready to get Arnott back to his family when he needed expert clinical care to recover.

Something Wasn’t Right

Ironically, the blockages in Arnott’s heart were discovered because he was doing something healthy. Homebound during the pandemic, he and his wife began walking outdoors. Arnott, who is 67, noticed he was getting tired more quickly than he should have.

“And I just didn’t feel right,” Arnott says. “I didn’t feel bad. I just didn’t feel right.”

Active and strong but aware there was a history of heart disease in his family, Arnott decided it would be a good idea to check in with a physician. That led to a stress test ordered by a cardiologist.

“I failed that miserably, and everything moved pretty quick after that,” Arnott says. He was soon scheduled for a coronary artery bypass graft on three vessels in his heart.

Arnott followed through with cardiac rehab at Covenant Health South. The Chapman Highway facility, which opened in March 2023, offers services to South Knoxville and Seymour area residents that they may have had to travel much further for in the past.

Heart patients get a combination of heart-healthy education and monitored exercise.  A unique feature of the cardiac rehab program at Covenant Health South is double monitoring. A nurse behind a desk monitors critical data from all the patients who are exercising at the facility at the same time, while a cardiac rehab professional checks in on the vital signs of each individual patient from an iPad while nearby supervising exercise.

“That’s the best thing because, let’s face it, if you’ve just come out of surgery, you’ve got limitations, but how do you know what your limitations are?” Arnott says. “I didn’t have to worry if I was doing too much because they monitor that the whole time.”

On the Path to an Active Life

“It’s actually a prevention and rehabilitation approach,” says Chris Spruiell, in charge of cardiac rehab at Covenant Health South. “It modifies risk factors and develops lifelong habits and changes.”

Spruiell says a personalized plan is developed for each patient, tailored to meet the patient’s needs and level of ability. The goal is to discharge patients with the tools they need to keep living life with strength and stamina.

“This is kind of a launching pad,” Spruiell says. “It teaches them exactly how hard to work out, what to do on their diet, how to shop for food and make choices in a restaurant. It teaches them what to do from now on.”

Arnott’s daughter is a heart transplant patient and recently visited from Virginia to join her parents on a hike to Abrams Falls in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They enjoyed the journey together, a father and daughter inspiring each other to take healthy living to heart.

As the first patient to graduate from the cardiac rehabilitation program at the new Covenant Health South facility, Arnott advises heart patients who may follow behind him that it’s hard work. He also says it’s worth it, and that it was worthwhile work he was more than willing to do for his family.

“Life is precious. I’ve got 43 grandkids to watch grow up, and I’ve got great-grandkids,” Arnott says. “I want to accomplish as much as I can, and cardiac rehab allowed me to accomplish what I could safely.”

Cardiopulmonary rehabilitation is available at Covenant Health South with a physician referral for patients who need to be monitored during exercise after suffering a heart, lung or respiratory event. In addition to cardiac rehabilitation, Covenant Health South offers imaging, nephrology, physical therapy, pregnancy care, primary care, urgent care, and women’s health services.

For more information, visit CovenantHealthSouth.com.