By GREG NIKKEL of the Weyburn Review
At age 14, Jacquie Barker received a gift that will remain with her as long as she lives - the vitality of a repaired heart that now beats with more strength than it ever did before.
Today, at age 15, Jacquie is a normal, healthy teenage girl in Grade 10, full of energy with a sparkle in her eyes that wasn't always there for the first 14 years of her life. There is no sign that the beautiful young woman expressively describing her experience ever had to face not one, but two, heart procedures, the second one being open-heart surgery.
After facing down a problem that could have hampered the quality of her life, if not shortened it considerably, Jacquie was named as the honourary chairperson of this year's Heartfest, a celebration hosted annually by the Weyburn chapter of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
February is Heart Month, and is an important time for the foundation when they undertake fund-raising and public education activities to promote heart health and heart research. The annual door-to-door canvass was held on Feb. 7-9 in the city and area, and the fourth annual Heartfest was held at the Souris Valley grounds on Valentine Sunday.
This fourth instalment of the winter festival was Jacquie's first time to attend, and she was excited at the prospect of helping out when she received a call from Cindy Bell, the area coordinator for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Some of the events were those she would never have thought of participating in before, such as snowshoeing, snowvolleyball and snowsoccer, toboggan races, and tug-o-war challenges, to name just a few.
"It's just inspiring to know that you can be that healthy after all she's been through. After talking with her, I was so impressed with her outlook on life, and she was so positive," said Cindy.
While Jacquie took part in whatever she could at Heartfest, this wasn't always possible for her to do. For all of her growing up years, she had trouble getting enough energy to do things.
"I used to have fainting spells, and I would get tired very easily. I didn't have much energy, and my skin was paler than it is now, if you can believe it," she said, laughing.
Whenever she would run or do anything energetic, her heart would start racing, and she would have to be taken to hospital to get a shot to slow it down, sometimes staying for up to a week in ICU. Doctors here and in Regina checked her out, and felt her lack of energy was just in her mind; they didn't know why she couldn't seem to get up enough energy to do physical things.
After one episode of her heart racing, she was taken to a Regina hospital, but nothing they tried would slow her heart down. Jacquie was taken to Edmonton, where doctors did a vein catheterization, going in through a major artery in one of her legs to cauterize a part of her heart. A three-part wire was inserted into her artery, one of which had a mini-camera so the doctors could be guided in this delicate procedure.
"They told me if they slipped at all while they doing this, if they burnt the wrong part of the heart, I would've needed a pacemaker," said Jacquie.
They were able to treat the right part of the heart, but the camera revealed something else none of her doctors had never known before: Jacquie had a hole in her heart about the size of a loonie.
"A sign that you have a hole in your heart is to have a murmur, and I didn't have one, which was amazing," said Jacquie.
To fix this problem, she was sent to a cardiologist in Saskatoon, who performed the open-heart surgery, a three or four-hour procedure, on July 4, 1997.
Jacquie's youth and strength were a strong part of her recovery, as she worked hard after the surgery to get her strength back, and was able to leave the hospital after only four days. While in the hospital, she found she certainly wasn't alone as a young person in needing the services of a cardiologist, as she met a girl who was going in for her fourth open-heart surgery.
Shortly after her return, Jacquie went shopping at the Weyburn Square Mall, and people were shocked to see her there, only days after her heart surgery. Two weeks after she had been on the operating table, she was with her friends at her church, New Covenant Ministries, and carried an 18-year-old man on her back just to show she was all right and had her strength back.
Asked if people are surprised to learn someone so young had to undergo two heart procedures, she replied with a laugh, "Most people were surprised that I was out of the hospital in four days!"
Jacquie said a major factor giving her confidence going into the surgery was the knowledge that many people were praying for her.
"There were people everywhere praying for me. People in England were praying for me; I just find that amazing. I was aware of it before going in and it helped a lot. I wasn't worried or tense at all about having the surgery," said Jacquie.
"I feel I'm pretty lucky that they found the hole. If they had found it when I was older, if I had had a heart attack or something ," her voice trailing off before adding, "It stopped something bad from happening in the future."
Since her surgery, she has done very well, and has never had so much energy and ability to do physical activities.
"I've been in Phys. Ed. this year, I've got lots of energy and I'm keeping up to my class now. I haven't been back in the hospital. Just awhile ago I was told I don't have to see the doctor anymore about my heart," she said.
As far as the role that the Heart and Stroke Foundation plays, she said she's glad this organization is out there, and she wants to help them out in any way she can.
"I think it's good they're doing research. I'm pretty thankful there's something out there for people with these problems. It just seems neat that I got picked out of all the people who could've been chosen (as honourary chairperson). I don't have to, but I want to volunteer to do stuff with them."
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