Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    TREADMILLS, elliptical trainers, handweights, elastic belts are among several other apparatuses, which equip a 150-square-meter room in a Shenzhen hospital giving the impression that it’s a gym instead of the largest cardiac rehabilitation center in Shenzhen.

    Officially opening its doors Friday, the center, which includes another 50-square-meter room on the second floor of the University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital’s inpatient department, has been in trial operation for about a year and helped a number of patients improve their cardiovascular health after they suffered from heart problems such as heart attacks, or were recovering from an angioplasty or heart surgery.

    “These facilities are not the same as what we see in gyms,” said Huang Fangmei, head nurse of the hospital’s cardiovascular department. “They are medical apparatuses that can help patients exercise in ways that promote their heart health. Through the telemetries attached to patients’ wrists or waists, their biological data including heart rate and blood pressure is sent to a computer monitored by the medical staff, who then can tell the patients whether the amount of the exercise is proper or not.”

    Few hospitals in Shenzhen have such a cardiac rehab zone, and without professional lifestyle guidance after a heart surgery, some patients either exercise too much or don’t dare to work out at all, according to Tse Hung-Fat, director of the hospital’s cardiovascular department.

    “Proper amount of physical activity, in addition to education about lifestyle facilitated by a cardiac rehab center has been proved to be able to greatly reduce the risk of cardiac death.”

    The rehab program includes three stages and is available for both patients who are recovering from heart surgeries and those who have had a heart attack or other heart problems. Following the initial stage of medical evaluation, patients can visit the center twice a week for eight weeks for exercise and lifestyle counseling.

    “The program helps me rebuild my life, both physically and emotionally,” said a patient who identified himself as Xu Qiang, and had an angioplasty with a stent last year.