MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) – If you’re a patient at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Facility, changes are coming to your heart-healthy work out.
After the end of February, Phase III patients can no longer go to Grand Strand’s main campus for cardiac rehab. However, the hospital says it’s for a positive reason, but for one man, his workouts benefit him just as much as his heart.
Playing with his two dogs is something Bob Patrone says he doesn’t take for granted any more. He had a heart attack almost ten years ago.
“I had a heart attack while I was at work. I went into the hospital. It was a minor heart attack. The following day they said they were going to do a catheterization to see if I could either have a stint or if I would need bypass surgery,” he said.
Since then, he’s been a patient at Grand Strand’s cardiac rehab facility, but, he says, Thursday morning, he learned he won’t be for too much longer.
“We were exercising and they called us and said they had an announcement to make.”
Grand Strand officials say they are temporarily moving the Phase III program to the YMCA off of 62nd Avenue North in Myrtle Beach. They say nurses will still be there to monitor patients. Hospital officials say none of their services are ending, but they are transitioning.
Patrone says quitting the program would never be an option for him since he gains so much more than just a healthy heart.
“As soon as we get done exercising there’s like, what we call the bull pen, and it’s not just called the bull pen because we’re shooting the bull, if you know what I mean, but it’s good for everybody there.”
Grand Strand says the reason for the change is growth, but there’s no timeline as to when the Phase III program will return to the main campus.
The South Strand’s cardiac rehab center will not see any changes. Patients, like Patrone, who use the main campus, are welcome at that center near Socastee.
