LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – A Lincoln man who experienced a health scare that he’ll never forget is now using his recovery to encourage others to live a healthier lifestyle at CHI Health St. Elizabeth.
Last year, high blood pressure sent Ryan McClanahan to the hospital. While there, he learned he had suffered a heart attack.
Then in April, McClanahan had three stents put into his arteries to help keep them open.
“My heart was in pretty bad shape,” he said.
Before suffering that heart attack McClanahan said he didn’t have the healthiest habits.
“I had many years of bad choices of eating and drinking, everything you could do wrong I pretty much did,” he said.
Now, eight months later, McClanahan’s down 57 pounds and exercising daily.
“It’s easy to get down on yourself when you have a defeat, they preach a lot here it’s not perfection, it’s progress,” he said.
After seeing how much he turned his life around, he made it his mission to help others.
“After he was done he asked to volunteer with us and I said absolutely, he has a really unique perspective for our patients because I can tell them what they should be doing or can be doing and he’s doing it, he’s living it,” Kelly Skinner, a rehab therapist, said.
McClanahan helps check patients in, teach them how to use certain equipment, and is a resource throughout their rehab.
“It feels good to give back to a program that really changed my life,” he said.
As he continues his journey, he’s focused on maintaining what he’s started and making a difference.
“If I could just help one person it would be worth it.”
McClanahan said the journey to obtaining a healthier lifestyle is all about doing some type of movement daily and building on from there.
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