BREAST CANCER SURVIVORS

Often feel tired? If so and interested in exercising regularly under the supervision of exercise specialists, you may qualify for UAB’s ROME study.

Feb. 23: vs. Mountain Brook. 5 p.m.

Feb. 28: vs. Helena. 4:30 p.m.

OAK MOUNTAIN

Feb. 16: vs. Hoover. 4:30 p.m.

Feb. 17-18: Thompson Tournament. Veterans Park

Feb. 23: vs. Vestavia Hills. 4:30 p.m.

Feb. 28: vs. Thompson. TBD.

SPAIN PARK

Feb. 17-18: Thompson Tournament. Veterans Park.

Feb. 21: vs. Tuscaloosa County. 4:30 p.m.

Feb. 23: vs. Austin. 5 p.m.

Feb. 24-25: Hillcrest Tournament. Bowers Park.

Feb. 28: vs. Hoover. 4:30 p.m.

CONTINUED from page A1

She took it upon herself to organize a fundraising gala for Epilepsy Foundation Alabama this past November. The gala, Wings of Hope, drew about 200 people and raised more than $32,000.

Sara Franklin, a regional director for the Epilepsy Foundation who lives and works in Hoover, said she has been blown away by Burt and her contributions to the cause over the past two years.

Burt served as an ambassador for the Epilepsy Foundation, helping with events and encouraging family and friends to support seizure training so more people will know how to respond and help people when seizures occur.

She also helped call and email state legislators to gain support for the Seizure Safe Schools Act, which was passed by the Alabama Legislature and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in the spring of 2021 and went into effect this school year. The act allows non-medical school personnel who are trained to administer nasal anti-seizure medication to do so in emergency situations when a school nurse is not on campus.

Burt has been a tremendous help, Franklin said. “She’s just had so many good ideas about how to raise epilepsy awareness and train people in seizure first aid,” Franklin said.

Also, Franklin was impressed that Burt took her support to the next level by coming up with the idea for a fundraising gala and organizing it herself, with some assistance from her mom. The event sold out and was a great success, Franklin said.

With limited staff, the Epilepsy Foundation Alabama organization didn’t have the bandwidth to do that themselves, Franklin said.

The Wings of Hope Gala was held at the Southern Museum of Flight, enabling Burt to combine her passion for epilepsy awareness with her passion for flying.

From a young age, she always thought flying was something she would like to try, she said. Her grandfather, Bob Wall, is a pilot and paid for Burt’s first flying lesson as a 16th birthday present.

“I just fell in love from there,” she said.

“It’s really just snowballed into one of my favorite passions.”

Her friends thought she was crazy for wanting to fly a plane, but she liked the challenge of doing something in a male-dominated field, she said. She hopes to study aviation at Auburn University and become a commercial airline pilot for Delta, she said.

Burt flies with Over the Mountain Aviation at the Shelby County Airport. She already has completed her first solo flight, first cross-country solo flight and first night flight and is scheduled for her Federal Aviation Administration check ride on Feb. 4 to get her private pilot license, she said.

While Burt is Miss Jefferson County’s Outstanding Teen for 2023, she hasn’t been in a lot of those types of competitions. So far, she has been in only three. She won her very first preliminary and became Miss Leeds Area’s Outstanding Teen in June 2021 and went on to be named second runner-up in the Miss Alabama’s Outstanding Teen competition in March 2022. The Miss Jefferson County’s Outstanding Teen competition last year was her third competition, and her fourth will be the Miss Alabama’s Outstanding Teen competition this coming March.

Burt said she feels honored to represent Jefferson County in this year’s state competition and has been thrilled to have already received $25,000 in scholarships through these competitions.

She won the Jessica Baeder Community Service Award at the state competition last year for her work involving epilepsy awareness.

In addition to flying planes and working to battle epilepsy, Burt has several other hobbies. She has been a member of the track team and cheerleading squad at Briarwood since her freshman year and currently participates on both the varsity sideline football and basketball cheerleading squads and varsity competitive cheer squad.

She also has been dancing since age 2 and currently dances with the Birmingham Dance Theatre in Hoover. When she was younger, she did many types of dancing, including ballet, hip hop, jazz, tap and clogging, but she now focuses on ballet en pointe, which is the talent she performs in the scholarship competitions.

Burt is the daughter of Zane Burt and Eric and Kalika Gibbons.

Once he made it to the hospital, Baker learned that he had four blockages and his “widowmaker” artery was 100% blocked. He had two stents placed and would have two more the following month.

After his surgeries were complete, Baker’s physician, Dr. David Cox, advised him to enter a cardiac rehabilitation program to help with his recovery. Baker continues to do well and is grateful for this second chance at life.

WHAT IS CARDIAC REHAB?

Cardiac rehab is a medically supervised program designed to improve a patient’s cardiovascular health after a heart attack, heart failure, angioplasty or heart surgery. The goal is to accelerate recovery and get them back to daily activities.

According to the American Heart Association, it is considered standard care for a patient’s recovery. However, many patients do not take advantage of the program. A study published in June 2022 showed that only 25% of cardiac patients seek cardiac rehab after a heart event.

Baker not only took part in the 12-week cardiac rehab course at Ascension St. Vincent’s One Nineteen; his nurses described him as a model patient.

“I wanted to get better. That was my goal — to ensure I can live as long as I possibly can,” Baker said.

Cox said cardiac rehab is just as effective as, if not more effective than, any other kind of medication therapy given.

“The importance of cardiac rehab is to get people more active and decrease future events,” Cox said. “Cardiac rehab after a MI [myocardial infarction] should be recommended to everyone. Usually cost is never an issue, and the intervention has no downside, really only an upside.”

Cardiac rehab is set up similar to a gym environment where patients use different apparatuses that are overseen by nurses with cardiac experience. They are Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support trained and equipped to deal with emergencies. The 12-week program usually consists of three weekly sessions lasting one to two hours each.

“The goal is to do an initial assessment and progressively check vital signs, blood pressure and increase the level of exercise,” Cox said. “Some people may initially wonder why they are there or think it’s not much of a benefit. It’s tailored to [the patient’s] age and pre-existing functional capacity after a heart attack, and it would depend on the level of the heart attack.”

A SPECIAL BOND

Nurse Natalie Bailey and exercise physiologist Mary Katherine Tullo were with Baker every step of the way during his cardiac rehab at Ascension St. Vincent’s One Nineteen.

Tullo describes Baker as the patient that every nurse wants to have, adding that the entire time he was in rehab, he wanted to know what his goals were and then met them. Once he reached a goal, he would want a new one.

“When we first met Jim, he didn’t understand everything,” Tullo said. “He was very inquisitive and would ask questions, and we would just talk the whole time. We saw him go through this complete lifestyle change and focus on his health. He was determined and wanted to understand why he went through what he did, in order to change so that it would not happen again.”

Bailey describes Baker as one of the most determined people she has ever seen.

“He always had a positive attitude,” Baker said. “Jim really listened and absorbed everything we gave him and applied it to his everyday life. He set a goal and was going to accomplish it and not let anything get in his way. He’s a dream patient.”

Bailey and Tullo assisted Baker with cardio exercise (treadmill and stationary bike) before he progressed to jogging and strength training. Baker gets emotional when talking about the two. “Their gentleness, kindness and

Baker, in yellow, holds a certificate of achievement at the finish line with his support team, from left: Natalie Bailey, his son Jake, his wife Susan and Mary Katherine Tullo.

What are the symptoms of heart attack?

► Chest pain or discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center or left side of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes or that goes away and comes back. The discomfort can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.

► Feeling weak, light-headed or faint. You may also break out into a cold sweat.

► Pain or discomfort in the jaw, neck or back.

► Pain or discomfort in one or both arms or shoulders.

► Shortness of breath. This often comes along with chest discomfort, but shortness of breath also can happen before chest discomfort.

► Unusual or unexplained tiredness and nausea or vomiting. Women are more likely to have these symptoms.

SOURCE: CDC.GOV and balloons in hand. heart attack and thanked them for all their help. compassion were unparalleled,” he said, adding that he would not be where he is today without their care.

“It was a blessing to have Natalie and Mary Katherine,” he said. “They were just incredible and have such a heart for helping others. They made it fun. I’d get up in the morning ready to go. I formed a very special bond with them and refer to them as my angels on earth. Without them, I don’t think I’d be in the spot that I am in today.”

The three still keep in touch. Bailey said in addition to birthdays and holidays, Baker texted her and Tullo on the one-year anniversary of his

A Celebratory Run

Nine months after his heart attack, Baker had planned to run a 5K. When inclement weather was predicted for his race day, he changed his plans and decided to run it on the indoor track at Ascension St. Vincent’s One Nineteen.

When Bailey found out about the change of plans, she told Tullo they had to be there.

Baker’s wife and son came to cheer him on, but he didn’t know Bailey and Tullo found out about his plans and showed up to surprise and support him on their day off, encouraging signs