Melton worries heart patients | clarionledger.com | The Clarion-Ledger: “News of Jackson Mayor Frank Melton’s medical condition - ‘end-stage cardiomyopathy’ - grabbed Sallie Schott’s heart, but not in a good way.
‘I was so concerned, I tore the article out of the newspaper,’ said Schott, 64.
She, too, has cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that, for her, resulted in congestive heart failure.
It has forced her to restrict her diet, take on less strenuous work and break for rest several times daily.
‘It’s my personal thought,’ she said, ‘that (Melton) cannot do the job he’s been doing - running a city - with congestive heart failure.’
Melton was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2005, the same year he was elected. Heart failure means the inability of the heart to pump enough blood to supply the body’s needs.
Last week, because of Melton’s health issues, U.S. District Judge Dan Jordan issued a one-month delay in the start of the mayor’s civil rights trial. Jordan wants to give Melton time to recover so that he can get through the trial without delays.
Originally, Melton and his co-defendant, former police bodyguard Michael Recio, were to go to trial Monday. Melton, 59, is being prosecuted on alleged civil rights violations and other charges connected to a 2006 police-style raid on a northwest Jackson duplex.
Since being elected, Melton has had frequent health problems; he has had surgery three times. Melton also has checked into St. Dominic Hospital two times in the past few weeks, most recently on Dec. 22 with heart failure.
According to Jordan’s order, Melton’s health problems are caused in part by ‘noncompliance with doctors’ orders.’ Melton spokeswoman Goldia Revies said on Friday that the mayor ‘really doesn’t want to comment on anything related to the trial.’
Among the conditions the judge attached to the trial extension was that Melton take his medications as prescribed.
Melton’s physicians and an independent medical expert agreed ‘the trial should be delayed due to risk of heart failure and because Mr. Melton’s current condition will compromise his ability to stand trial and assist in his own defense.’
The order also stated that Melton’s cardiologist has recommended a heart transplant. Melton does not want to be put on a transplant list.
According to the order, his cardiologist also says the mayor is in end-stage cardiomyopathy.
‘End-stage cardiomyopathy implies a particularly advanced heart-muscle disease,’ said Dr. Charles Moore, cardiologist and medical director of the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s heart-transplant program who has no connection to the trial.
‘The vast majority of patients with cardiomyopathy can develop heart failure. The worse your heart-failure symptoms, the worse your prognosis.
‘If you look back at studies from five to 10 years ago, you had about a 50 percent chance of living five years or more, and a 50 percent chance of living less than five years,’ he said.
‘We can assume that with better medications now, the prognosis would be somewhat better.’
Persuading heart patients to take their medicine may be easier than getting them to take it easy, said Joann Flynt of Clinton, director of the local chapter of Mended Hearts, a heart-attack support group.
‘Some of our membership have congestive heart failure; it’s hard to change them and to keep them that way, as it is for any of our members,’ said Flynt, 69, who had heart surgery 11 years ago following a heart attack.
‘After my surgery, my husband wouldn’t let me cut the grass, which I love to do,’ she said.
‘I haven’t had a good piece of homemade fried chicken in years.’
For her part, Schott was diagnosed with congestive heart failure about 11 years ago after she contracted cardiomyopathy through a virus, she said.
‘One of the ways you’re going to die is that your body is going to retain so much water that your lungs will fill up and you die of congestion,’ she said.
‘I fooled all of them by living this long.
‘I believe I am alive because of Coreg (a prescription drug for heart disease), because I’ve minded my doctor and because I’m meticulous in adhering to my diet,’ said Schott, who must greatly limit her intake of salt or risk retaining even more water.
She now heads ‘Leading a New Life with Heart Failure,’ a support group for heart-failure patients organized by the Division of Cardiovascular Services at UMC.
Members share information and stories about how their lives have changed.
‘I just had life by the tail before I was diagnosed,’ Schott said. ‘My husband and I were going to travel. Now, zippo.’
Schott once worked as a goldsmith, which requires a lot of soldering, she said.
‘The time it takes to do things correctly and the stamina it takes to solder, I didn’t have that anymore. I went back to jewelry design and watercolor painting.’
She has to take four to six breaks a day, including at least one for 45 minutes to an hour.
‘Other people in the support group say they have to sit down for a couple of hours in the afternoon,’ she said. ‘It sort of feels like you have the really bad flu.’
The most common heart-failure symptoms are shortness of breath and fatigue, UMC’s Moore said. Others could include a ‘nonproductive cough, frequent urination at night and a swelling of the legs.
‘With more severe heart failure, you need several naps during the day (and) extra sleep,’ Moore said.
‘Various types of stress can aggravate these kinds of conditions, but it’s hard to find a life where’s there’s no stress. It’s an impossibility. … Generally, you should not be totally sedentary.
‘Studies show that mild exercise tends to keep (patients’) conditions more stable.
‘But they should not be out running races or climbing 10-story buildings.’
Among the habits that can aggravate the condition is ‘drinking too much,’ Moore said, ‘even if it’s not the primary cause.
‘If I have a patient who has cardiomyopathy and has heart failure, I tell him to abstain or take only one alcoholic drink a day.
‘But if you’re an alcoholic, you’re probably not going to be able to take only one drink a day. It would have to be: abstain entirely.’
In October, Melton denied he was intoxicated the night of the 2006 raid. He blamed any slurring of speech or strange behavior on various medications he takes for his bad heart and high blood pressure.
‘At that particular time, I was in congestive heart failure and had just started taking it (medications),’ he said at the time.
‘That’s not to say to you that I don’t like a little Scotch and water now and then.’
Treatments for cardiomyopathy can include medications, such as the Coreg that Schott takes; surgically implanted devices or, as mentioned for Melton, a heart transplant.
Melton also will have to do ‘what the doctor tells him to do,’ Flynt said. ‘After my surgery, I decided to do as that book says: ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff.’ ‘”
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