EcoHeart Community

  An executive at a Bloomington, Indiana based company, Ed Ackerman was already benefiting from great health care locally when his boss invited him to participate in  Cleveland Clinic’s Executive Health Program .   “I’d recently gotten a clean bill of health after my annual physical with my local primary care physician and a second check up at the local VA hospital,” says Ackerman, a U.S. Army veteran. “I was feeling blessed to have good health with no symptoms of any kind, but since my boss spoke so highly of the program at Cleveland Clinic, I said yes.” Ackerman came to Cleveland Clinic in October 2022 for a  comprehensive day-long exam  designed to discover potential health problems; target, reduce and eliminate risk factors; facilitate prompt, expert follow-up care as needed; and promote wellness. A typical  executive health physical  includes a head-to-toe evaluation; vision, hearing, heart health and lung function tests; urinalysis and comprehens...

  In 2017, after she saw her son have a seizure for the first time, Airin Rodriguez had a hard time sleeping at night. Jorge, 31, lives with Airin and is  autistic . He is an accomplished artist who loves painting and drawing and has had a gallery exhibit in Venezuela, where he and his family are from. “He expresses himself through his art,” says Airin. Airin started to notice more seizures and worried for Jorge. “I had all this anxiety and I wondered what would happen if I was not there for the next seizure,” she says. She took him to a neurologist and he was put on medication, which was adjusted as needed. Five years later, a bout with stomach pain led Airin to take Jorge to the emergency room at  Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital . While there, Airin says she expressed her concerns about Jorge’s seizures to one of the nurses. He was still having them once or twice a month and was now on multiple  epilepsy  medications. After further evaluation, Jorge was admit...

  As an active father of two, Kevin Hudson never thought he’d be among the rising number of young adults experiencing a  stroke . It started out as an average Wednesday for the 43 year old at the time. He was working out before taking his daughters to school when his symptoms started. “I remember my eyesight getting really blurry at the gym. I thought maybe I just stood up too quickly,” says Kevin of Lakewood, Ohio, who had the stroke two weeks from his birthday. He didn’t think too much of it at first and wanted to finish his workout, but he ultimately went home because he felt his body was telling him something wasn’t right. Kevin soon felt weakness in his right leg and couldn’t use his right arm. He also had trouble talking and could only say, “yeah,” to questions his wife would ask him. She ultimately called 911. Although he couldn’t communicate well, he made it a point to make sure he could recognize all the street names as he passed them in the ambulance on the way to...

  Nurse practitioner Alison Hoit says it’s not often she gets to hear her patients’ success stories after they leave her floor in the cardiac ICU. But after caring for a fellow Cleveland Clinic nurse who had a   heart attack   at work, Alison unexpectedly met this nurse again when her daughter, Maddie, was in the   neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) . “I overheard my daughter’s nurse telling my mom she had been on my floor after having a heart attack. When I walked in the room, I realized it was Pam, the nurse I had cared for in the cardiac ICU,” says Alison, recalling having goosebumps when she made the connection it was NICU nurse Pam Kays. Pam says, “When Ali realized it was me, the look on her face was priceless, her jaw dropped. She said, ‘You were my patient,’ and asked for a hug. It was surreal to have that connection.” Oct. 2, 2023, is when Pam had her heart attack at 55 years old, and that day started like any other. It was a Monday, and she hadn’t experien...

Having been on  birth control medication  for almost half of her life to alleviate  painful menstrual cycles , Arabella Reeves decided she didn’t want to take the pill any longer. So in November 2021, the 33-year-old from London stopped taking her prescribed contraception. Immediately, she started having issues — her  period was irregular , having a period roughly every six to eight weeks, and she was in severe pain that kept getting worse. “I enjoy going out with friends and to the gym to work out, but the issues my period was causing made me avoid both”, says Arabella. “It was affecting my daily life significantly”. In August 2022, Arabella made an appointment with  Dr Joan Pattle , a GP at  Cleveland Clinic London , through her corporate healthcare services made available by her employer. “Dr Pattle took my pain symptoms seriously and got action quickly. Without her, I'm sure I would still be experiencing a lot of pain” says Arabella. “I enjoy going out ...