This week is being observed as National Cardiac Rehabilitation Week … and the employees and patients of the Riverside Cardiac Rehab program have reason to celebrate.

Not only have many patients benefited from the program since it began on the Riverside Walter Reed Hospital/Middle Peninsula Wellness and Fitness Center campus in 1993, hospital officials said, but the local program recently received national recertification, as well.

"I thought I had indigestion," said Eva Towell of what turned out to be a heart condition. Towell, one of the many local residents who have benefited from the program. She said she has changed her eating habits, learned about her medications, began exercising, and met some wonderful friends in the program.

"It changed my life," said Towell, a recent graduate of the cardiac rehab program and a registered nurse for Riverside Home Health. She was able to get back to work much more quickly with the help of the cardiac rehab s...