Veterans Voice: Event raises awareness of heart disease in women vets
By Mary K. Talbot
Nancy Euell, 63, spent five years in the Air Force on active duty and another 15 as a civilian employee. So when she moved from Atlanta to Rhode Island and wanted to find a doctor, she didn’t hesitate to sign up for VA Providence Healthcare. She was familiar with the quality of care that the VA offers and wasted no time enrolling upon her arrival.
Euell scheduled a routine physical where she was pleased to meet Dr. Lauren Schlanger, her new primary care physician. Tests were ordered to get a better picture of Eull’s overall health at that initial meeting and it was then that an irregular heartbeat was detected. “They said it was a murmur. Then they went on to test some more and they wanted to know if I ever had rheumatic fever,” she remembers. Her mitral valve wasn’t working as expected so Euell was placed on a heart monitor for observation.