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Nan and Jerry Take Heart
Written By: Jenny King | Issue: 2016/01 - Winter | Photograph By: Marjorie Christiansen Photography
Should you walk into Health Tracks at Highlands Cashiers Hospital, it’s likely you’ll see a familiar face. Nan Presley has been the wine concierge at Bryson’s Food Store for years. Now she volunteers at Health Tracks beside her husband Jerry, who really is The Wiz.
This man behind the curtain has been a volunteer for 15 years and has some firsthand experience to share with the patients. In 2001 Jerry had open-heart surgery to repair five blocked arteries. He was sent to the Cardiac Program at the hospital where he participated in the standard 36-visit rehabilitation plan.
Over the weeks Presley realized how much better he felt and after he completed the 36 visits, “I felt better than I had in years, even better than before I had the surgery. I was so impressed with the program I knew I had to give something back,” he says.
He began volunteering immediately upon completing the program and has been an integral part of Health Tracks since.
Nan, after retiring from Bryson’s, began assisting her husband and together they work three mornings a week. Jerry arrives at 6:45 A.M. before the staff, and makes the coffee, prepares the equipment and readies the cardiac area. As patients arrive, both he and Nan work directly with them and can offer firsthand experience about what to expect.
“A lot of people come in and they’re afraid, angry, and depressed. My job is to let them know we’ve been there and it will get better,” Nan says quietly. “We know what they’re going through.” While Nan circulates on the floor, checking heart rate and oxygen levels, Jerry watches the sensitive cardiac monitors, often as many as eight patients at one time. He keeps close tabs on the patients’ vital signs so he can alert the nurses to any hint of trouble.
What does 15 years worth of volunteering look like? It all adds up to over 12,000 hours and earning the title of “Volunteer of the Year” in Cashiers. But you can bet your life neither Jerry nor Nan do it for the accolades. They do it because they know, firsthand, what it takes to recover from a massive cardiac event. Volunteering is another way to take care of your heart. Just ask them.
