Peggy and Larry Scales (pictured center) stopped by to thank nurse Verna Deinla (left) and Dr. Kimberly Ushe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\u201cI came to Houston VA feeling sick and tired of being sick and tired. I take pride in taking care of myself and I had no energy to do the things I love. When the doctors recommended an LVAD, I was a little anxious, but I jumped at the chance to get my life back,\u201d Scales shared.<\/p>\n
The left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is cutting-edge technology that involves a small, battery-operated pump that\u2019s implanted into the chest and helps the heart circulate blood. Scales had this life-changing and lifesaving procedure at Houston VA last summer and said upon waking up from the surgery he knew immediately he had done the right thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel better than I have in years.\u201d<\/h2>\n
\u201cI woke up from surgery feeling hopeful and positive about the future. The VA team gave me straight talk about what I needed to do to get better and they supported me through my recovery every step of the way. Now, I feel better than I have in years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One of the first people Scales met at Houston VA was Dr. Steve Antoine, an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Antoine spent a lot of time talking with me about my goals and educating me about my options.\u00a0It was obvious he cared about me as a person and knew I was ready to take ownership of my life. He is definitely a heart doctor with a real heart for his patients,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
As a board-certified specialist in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, advanced heart failure, cardiovascular nuclear medicine and echocardiography and an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, Antoine brings a comprehensive skill set to his Veteran patients and particularly enjoys getting to know them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I meet Veterans, I love learning about them and all they have accomplished.\u00a0I knew right away Mr. Scales was an amazing guy. I met him right before his right heart cath, which is a procedure to measure cardiac output and pressures inside the heart. He told me that he likes cars, so I explained my findings to him in car lingo by telling him that I popped the hood and his engine was fuming and that we needed to do something immediately. He understood right away what needed to be done. His determination to live, courage and trust that he gave us over a short period of time made caring for him very easy despite how sick he was,\u201d Antoine said.<\/p>\n
Scales says his family, his faith and getting his mojo back were his biggest motivators during his LVAD recovery.\u00a0He credits his wife, Peggy, a compassionate nurse with many years of health care experience as also playing a key role in his recovery.\u00a0The couple has five children and seven grandchildren.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first met my beautiful wife, we bonded over our love of life and a love of dancing. When I was in heart failure, I couldn\u2019t dance with her at all.\u00a0Since I got the LVAD, we listen to music around the house and even take breaks from our daily chores to dance,\u201d Scales said.<\/p>\n
Larry and Peggy Scales came back to Houston VA earlier this month for a Heart Month Celebration where they enjoyed sharing his story of recovery and meeting other Veteran patients. Their future plans include selling their home and purchasing an RV to travel, visit family and see the sights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to ride off to see the sunsets.\u00a0I have a lot of life left to live and I\u2019m thankful to VA for helping me get the chance to live it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Savitri Fedson, medical director of the advanced heart failure program, Houston VA is one of just a few VA facilities performing the LVAD procedure nationwide.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs one of the largest VA cardiothoracic and cardiology programs in the country, we offer Veterans the full spectrum of heart care and welcome complex cases.\u00a0We are thrilled to offer Veterans like Mr. Scales the state-of-the-art care they so richly deserve,\u201d Fedson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Army Veteran Larry Scales has been living with heart issues for years.\u00a0The 68-year-old Texan had his first heart attack in 1999 and, over the years, he worked hard to improve his health.\u00a0 Despite quitting smoking and watching his diet, he had a second heart attack in 2015 and got a pacemaker. After having a third […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":379354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1283,1267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-heart-attack","category-visn-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379352"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379358,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379352\/revisions\/379358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/379354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![<\/a>Peggy and Larry Scales (pictured center) stopped by to thank nurse Verna Deinla (left) and Dr. Kimberly Ushe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\u201cI came to Houston VA feeling sick and tired of being sick and tired. I take pride in taking care of myself and I had no energy to do the things I love. When the doctors recommended an LVAD, I was a little anxious, but I jumped at the chance to get my life back,\u201d Scales shared.<\/p>\nThe left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is cutting-edge technology that involves a small, battery-operated pump that\u2019s implanted into the chest and helps the heart circulate blood. Scales had this life-changing and lifesaving procedure at Houston VA last summer and said upon waking up from the surgery he knew immediately he had done the right thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cI feel better than I have in years.\u201d<\/h2>\n\u201cI woke up from surgery feeling hopeful and positive about the future. The VA team gave me straight talk about what I needed to do to get better and they supported me through my recovery every step of the way. Now, I feel better than I have in years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nOne of the first people Scales met at Houston VA was Dr. Steve Antoine, an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cDr. Antoine spent a lot of time talking with me about my goals and educating me about my options.\u00a0It was obvious he cared about me as a person and knew I was ready to take ownership of my life. He is definitely a heart doctor with a real heart for his patients,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\nAs a board-certified specialist in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, advanced heart failure, cardiovascular nuclear medicine and echocardiography and an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, Antoine brings a comprehensive skill set to his Veteran patients and particularly enjoys getting to know them.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen I meet Veterans, I love learning about them and all they have accomplished.\u00a0I knew right away Mr. Scales was an amazing guy. I met him right before his right heart cath, which is a procedure to measure cardiac output and pressures inside the heart. He told me that he likes cars, so I explained my findings to him in car lingo by telling him that I popped the hood and his engine was fuming and that we needed to do something immediately. He understood right away what needed to be done. His determination to live, courage and trust that he gave us over a short period of time made caring for him very easy despite how sick he was,\u201d Antoine said.<\/p>\nScales says his family, his faith and getting his mojo back were his biggest motivators during his LVAD recovery.\u00a0He credits his wife, Peggy, a compassionate nurse with many years of health care experience as also playing a key role in his recovery.\u00a0The couple has five children and seven grandchildren.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen I first met my beautiful wife, we bonded over our love of life and a love of dancing. When I was in heart failure, I couldn\u2019t dance with her at all.\u00a0Since I got the LVAD, we listen to music around the house and even take breaks from our daily chores to dance,\u201d Scales said.<\/p>\nLarry and Peggy Scales came back to Houston VA earlier this month for a Heart Month Celebration where they enjoyed sharing his story of recovery and meeting other Veteran patients. Their future plans include selling their home and purchasing an RV to travel, visit family and see the sights.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWe want to ride off to see the sunsets.\u00a0I have a lot of life left to live and I\u2019m thankful to VA for helping me get the chance to live it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\nAccording to Dr. Savitri Fedson, medical director of the advanced heart failure program, Houston VA is one of just a few VA facilities performing the LVAD procedure nationwide.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cAs one of the largest VA cardiothoracic and cardiology programs in the country, we offer Veterans the full spectrum of heart care and welcome complex cases.\u00a0We are thrilled to offer Veterans like Mr. Scales the state-of-the-art care they so richly deserve,\u201d Fedson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Army Veteran Larry Scales has been living with heart issues for years.\u00a0The 68-year-old Texan had his first heart attack in 1999 and, over the years, he worked hard to improve his health.\u00a0 Despite quitting smoking and watching his diet, he had a second heart attack in 2015 and got a pacemaker. After having a third […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":379354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1283,1267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-heart-attack","category-visn-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379352"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379358,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379352\/revisions\/379358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/379354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Vet-and-docs_r1-2.jpg\"){kind=link}