By: Teddy Paynter - teddy.paynter@pikevillehospital.org, Staff Writer Published: 05/04/2012

PIKEVILLE — Phyllis May left the area with her husband Paul years ago, raising their family in Cincinnati and then relocating to Georgia six years ago. She enjoys coming to Pike County to visit relatives at Hardy and Toler.

Recently, however, she made the 600-mile trek for another reason — to undergo stress testing at Pikeville Medical Center.

“I was having trouble breathing and knew something wasn’t right,” she said.

After a discussion with a doctor located five miles from her home, she was advised that she could undergo testing and initial treatment at a local hospital there but would have to travel to Jacksonville, Fla., if heart surgery was needed.

“I wanted to go somewhere that I could get my testing and treatment done at the same place,” she said.

Previously, May’s brother had stents put into his heart and her sister had emergency open-heart surgery. Both procedures were done at Pikeville Medical Center.

“[PMC] took such good care of my brother and sister,” she said. “I wanted to keep the same doctor and not have to go back and forth.”

Her decision to come to PMC was easy, May said.

“The care of my siblings made the choice easy for me,” she said. “I met with Dr. [Muhammad] Ahmad and he explained everything to me about what procedures I needed to have done.”

May said she passed the stress test.

“I felt so good about the [test] results,” she said. “Even before I knew what the outcome would be, I wanted to be treated at PMC.”

May had already decided that if heart surgery was needed she wanted Dr. Dennis Havens to do the procedure, she said.

“I have heard so many great things about him and the hospital,” she said. “I knew it was worth driving 10 hours to get the treatment I needed from physicians and people who care about you.”

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