BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — February 12-18 is Cardiac Rehabilitation Week which highlights the importance of physical rehabilitation for people who have had strokes, heart disease and heart attacks.

Shawnee Wells has been a registered nurse at Med. Center Health for 17 years, but the last four have been in cardiac rehabilitation.

“The biggest draw was to see my patients steadily improve,” she said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading cause of death in Kentucky is heart disease.

But people like Wells help lower these rates by checking blood pressure, putting patients through aerobic exercise, which strengthens the heart muscle and increases heart rate. She also helps patients with strength training and checks their lungs to reduce the risk of things such as coronary heart disease.

Wells said, “The prevalence of coronary heart disease increases after age 65, going from 6% to 13%, so it more than doubles for Kentuckians after age 65.”

The rehab also helps patients who have had other forms of cardiac events, like a heart attack, which 800,000 people in the United States suffer from every year, according to data from the CDC.

Wells said, “They come back to us, which can reduce future hospitalizations.”

Wells says the best part of the rehab is seeing improvement and using her passion to help.

Wells said, “Maybe they had trouble walking to the mailbox to get their mail. After our program, they’re able to do that without being short of breath.”