The Cape Fear Valley Bladen Cardiac Rehabilitation unit is a progressive and growing concern and a bright spot in the many areas of health care that are not going unnoticed. Pictured in the rehab facility with some of the new machines that were recently purchased are (Left to Right) RN Regina Berumen, Amber Bordeaux - Patient Relations/Executive Assistant, and Michael Berumen - business administration.
Mark DeLap | Bladen Journal
CAPE FEAR VALLEY HEALTH
ELIZABETHTOWN – Cape Fear Valley Bladen County Hospital offers cardiac rehabilitation services as part of its comprehensive heart and vascular care, with a focus on personalized, comprehensive care and a multidisciplinary approach.
There is a couple working at Cape Fear Valley Bladen Hospital that are all about the heart – and more specifically, all about your heart.
Michael Berumen who hails from Milwaukie, Oregon actually moved back to the Carolinas with his family when he was young and graduated from Lumberton High School in 1997. and Regina Berumen was born in Fayetteville and went on to graduate from East Bladen High School in 1995.
“Most of my family is right here in Bladen,” she said. “We moved here when I was very young. I had a few family members who have been through quite a bit – health wise and I saw both the good and the bad and I decided I wanted to be that one who could make a difference in someone’s life who needed health care.”
As far as the two health care professionals getting together to form a power-team at CFVBH, it started with Michael in Lumberton and Regina in Elizabethtown.
“She’s cardiac rehab and I am a cardiopulmonary manager,” he said. “I assist here and get her whatever she needs here. She pretty much does all the rehab work. She was a registered ER nurse here for almost 20 years, I was a respiratory therapist for 20 years. I ended up leaving Lumberton and coming here to work. We ran into each other in the emergency room.”
They had never crossed paths until that moment.
“I had never dated anyone from work before,” she said. “It was against the rules, right? You don’t do that.”
“We both met and then joked about dating each other,” he said. “I asked her out that first time and it was the date that never ended. We ended up going to Fayetteville – Bonefish Grill and had the shrimp.”
A memory that is ever ingrained in their minds, going against the norm for dating and creating a success story. It’s the same principles that have been applied to creating something very special and out of the ordinary for a small rural hospital.
Regina first earned her associate degree from Sampson Community College and was licensed to become an RN in 2005. After growing up watching and helping her own family overcome some medical struggles, she went on to SCC and now, after 20 years of service in the medical community, she feels that she has come a long way and learned a lot.
“I have a family history at this hospital, I guess you’d say,” she said. “My aunt was a nurse here for 20 years and she was like a second mom. My mom also worked here in medical records for over 20 years also. It’s kind of like being home in the hospital.”
Michael followed his father into the construction trade and walked in that profession for over a decade. His father decided that he wanted a better future for his son and fired him so he would go to college and earn his degree while finding his niche in this world.
“Long story short, my father wanted me to do something other than construction all my life,” he said. “I got into the respiratory program because it was the only program available at the time at Robeson Community College.”
He earned his degree in associate respiratory care in 2004 before he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in health care management from the University of Mt. Olive in 2016. His future goals include gaining a masters degree from Fayetteville State University.
The cardiac rehab center, according to the couple, has been in Bladen for decades, but a new focus has shined a new light on an area that is re-surging.
“It’s been here for a very long time,” she said. “It kind of died out during COVID.”
“And a lot if it is because she is doing such a great job,” he said. “She actually put a special focus on it and there are now a lot of people now paying attention to it. Numbers have increased and with those, the number of success stories have increased. New equipment that we were finally able to get that she pushed for and finally got. The CEO here (Spencer Cummings) has seen her patients and talked to her patients – and her patients are talking – and the excitement is all about her. Some have said they want to come back even when they are not required to do so anymore.”
New equipment at the Cape Fear Valley Bladen Hospital has made a world of difference in the hands of these two talented individuals and with grants that helped purchase the equipment, the old cardiac rehab facility has had a face-lift that has made a difference in once again in Bladen County.
When asked about his wife in the role of hands-on caregiving and rehabilitation, he spoke of her passion to care.
“She’s very compassionate,” he said. “She’s very good at explaining what’s going on before attempting rehab and guides them very well in what she does. It was part of her heart and reaching out that she was able to get the new equipment out here, and the new equipment is not just new equipment. It is actually geared toward everybody. It’s got more rotations, more turns – so no matter if they are big or small or limited mobility, it allows everybody to have an opportunity to be able to work out.”
After decades of working as a caregiver in the medical field, Regina had a vision for what she wanted to purchase that would make CFVBH not only cutting edge in rehabilitation, but also effective across all spectrums of health issues.
“I wrote a grant last year and in one of our rehabilitation rooms, all the equipment is brand-new,” she said. “The grant was for approximately $18K. We were able to get a new cardio step machine, a new aerodyne bike and a new SciFit total body exerciser which is the first one they’ve ever had here. Across the hall from that workout room is another room that has two new treadmills in it.”
“To be such a small area and have this type of rehabilitation equipment is very special,” Michael said. “Regina is able to have two people at a time in that room and she is able to monitor them both at the same time.”
It sounds like a commercial, but in speaking to the Berumens, it’s like a “but wait, there’s more” moment.
“My dream is to be able to double the amount of area to accommodate phase II cardiac patients that we see,” she said. “Phase III would be adding on an actual gym-setting. Right now I have 10 patients three days a week and they come on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So, that is 30 visits.”
The Berumens eat, sleep and live CFVBH. They talk about work on the way to work in the mornings and on their way home at night. Their patients become like family and one of the impressive things about the care is the care they receive as a follow up after their regiment of ordered care is finished.
Regina began in health care taking care of her family, and now she has changed very little as to that care, but has simply… increased her family that she takes care of.
The Cape Fear Valley Bladen Hospital Cardiac Rehab facility. Another jewel in the health care crown in Bladen County.