Half Million Pledged to Baptist Heart Center

WBH employees view the new donor wall in the heart center’s lobby.

The newly funded Carson-Myre Charitable Foundation has pledged $500,000 for the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center in the new Baptist Heart Center. Dr. Louis Myre, a retired internal medicine physician, was on staff at Western Baptist for approximately 30 years before retiring in the mid-1980s. In the 1960s, he, along with Drs. C. Pittman Orr and W.P. (Pete) Hall, set up the hospital’s first cardiac ward with five beds.

“We had the first heart monitors,” said Dr. Myre. “Our nurses were trained to work with them, and the doctors were trained to read electrocardiograms. This was just the beginning. More and more specialists started coming to Western Baptist.”

Since that first ward, Western Baptist has attracted cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons who pioneered a host of cardiac “firsts,” including the first heart catheterization in 1977 and the first open-heart surgery in 1985.

Mrs. Jane Carson Myre authorized the gift to honor her husband’s work and establish an endowment. “One of the most serious health problems facing us today is heart disease,” she said.

The gift will insure ongoing technology updates—a key to attracting new physicians and providing excellent care to the people of the region. “The heart center will allow people in this area to get the treatment they need without having to travel great distances when time is critical to their survival,” she said.

The hospital’s foundation organized just over a year ago with a $4 million gift from the Martha Atwell McBane estate. It has since raised approximately $1.5 million in gifts and pledges for the heart center and other hospital projects. To find out how you can be part of Baptist’s legacy of giving, phone Laurie Latham at (270) 575-2871.
 
Giving from the heart: Western Baptist celebrates the opening of the new Baptist Heart Center, made possible in part because of the generous hearts of friends, patients, Auxiliary members, employees and physicians.