Joe & Judy Zanin

Joe Zanin has always stayed in shape. As the owner of a local construction company for 34 years, he stayed physically active in his profession, and also worked out regularly at a gym. So one morning in 2000, when he started feeling lightheaded during a workout, he didn’t know what to think. The sensations didn’t go away, however, so he drove to the emergency room at Aspen Valley Hospital (AVH). There, a doctor gave him some startling news: He was having a heart attack. An ambulance rushed Joe to Denver, where surgeons implanted a stent. After four days in the hospital, he returned home and started a prescribed 12-week regimen of cardiac rehab at AVH — and never stopped. More than 17 years after his insurance stopped covering his rehab costs, he still works out at AVH three times a week, happily paying the fees himself. “Cardiac rehab is the main thing that has kept me going,” the 82-year-old retiree says. “When you try to exercise on your own, it’s hard to stay motivated. But in cardiac rehab, they keep you in line. If you aren’t pushing yourself enough, they’ll tell you.” Joe has been so impressed that he donated funds for the rehab center to build a kitchen, where a nutritionist teaches classes about preparing heart-healthy meals. It’s a way to continue the patients’ preventative care at home. Since his initial heart attack, Joe has never had another. He credits that, in part, to the physical benefits of cardiac rehab, as well as the friendships he has developed with AVH therapists Melody Durham and Julie Puchkoff and with other people who use the rehab facility. “I go in early and work out, and then a group of us will go to the cafeteria and BS for a half-hour,” Joe says, laughing. “My wife says it’s really just a social club.”