High rates of smoking, cholesterol, obesity and diabetes and couch-potato lifestyles.

Cowlitz County is just one big heart attack waiting to happen — and the medical community is responding.

In recent months, the area has seen an influx of six cardiologists making weekly visits from Portland to see local heart patients. The most recent ones are Dr. Maureen Mays and Dr. Scott Chadderdon, physicians at Oregon Health & Science University, who have been seeing patients at St. John Medical Center since August.

“I have lots and lots of patients from Longview,” Mays said Thursday at St John. “Lots of people had been treated at OHSU and driving in for appointments. My boss said, ‘Hey, would you come to Longview?’ and it really made sense to do this.”

Mays, 45, specializes preventative cardiology, including treating patients with diabetes and high cholesterol. She’s one of a handful of West Coast physicians who is board-certified in cholesterol control, she said.

“If my patients can control their heart disease, that’s my goal: to keep them from having to see any of my colleagues,” she said, referring to heart surgeons. “Their job is to make sure the heart is functioning properly. My job is to look after very high blood pressure or diabetes not under control.”

Mays said she’s seen heart patients as young as 14 months and as old as 97.

“My passion is very young people who have had heart attacks in their 30s and 40s because they need a lot of attention to have any quality of life. When you’re that young, it’s always genes involved.”

Mays said a childhood incident likely led her to her chosen career.

“My dad had a heart attack in 1969 when I was 4 years old. He was 49,” she said. “At that time, children under 12 weren’t allowed to visit, so I didn’t see my dad for 30 days. That had to have some impact.”

In addition to seeing patients at OHSU and St. John, Mays spends about 20 percent of her time in clinical research.

“I’m studying new medications for cholesterol, new medications for diabetes … and new cholesterol medications for children,” she said.

Chadderdon, 36, said he was drawn to cardiology because “it’s a mix of being able to work with a lot of different patients and a lot of different areas of the disease process.”

Chadderdon’s specialty is noninvasive imaging, “an ultrasound-based assessment of the heart.” He devotes 75 percent of his time at OHSU in clinical research. He’s studying the early stages of hardening of the arteries, not just in the heart and neck, but in other blood vessels, especially in the obese, he said.

“The nice thing about this arrangement with OHSU is what Scott’s doing in the research side, he’s able to understand cardiovascular disease and bring that knowledge back here,” said Kirk Raboin, director of cardiovascular services at St. John. “We’re second in the state for (high rates of) cardiovascular disease. We have a huge need here.”

Chadderdon, who grew up in Casper, Wyo., said he welcomed the opportunity to see patients at St. John.

“Based on where I grew up, and the need for cardiovascular physicians in a rural setting, this is part of what I want to give as a cardiologist.”

Chadderdon said “it’s not rocket science” when it comes to heart disease prevention.

“Everybody knows what they need to do. We’ve been talking about it for 30 years,” he said. “If you smoke, if you don’t exercise and you eat poorly, you’ll have cardiovascular disease. The message has been lost in a wash of convenience, because the convenient things like fast food is easy. Canned food and processed food is easy.”

Mays shares the same sentiment.

“Usually, high blood pressure and high sodium is associated with eating out,” she said. “(In Cowlitz County), it’s related more to canned and processed (junk) food.”

Along with the weekly visits here by OHSU doctors, two cardiologists from Providence St. Vincent in Portland also have been seeing patients locally. Dr. William Simkoff started seeing patients in July, and Dr. Stuart Trenholme started seeing patients earlier this month.

OHSU cardiologists Dr. Joaquin Cigarroa and Dr. Karl Stajduhar also have been seeing patients at St. John one day a week each since spring of 2008, along St. John’s full-time cardiologist Dr. Noel Santo-Domingo. Partnering with OHSU and bringing their doctors here is part of St. John’s long-term plan to increase cardiac care locally.

“This is phase one where we have enough cardiologists coming to Longview,” said Raboin, of St. John. “Phase two is to recruit, along with OHSU, long-term cardiologists in our community.”

“Our community has always accepted that cardiac patients will come to St. John for ‘treat-and-transfer’ to a hospital outside of our community,” St. John spokesman Randy Querin said. “Our new plan will ultimately result in four full-time cardiologists on staff 24/7. When the plan is fully in place, local cardiac patients — short of open heart surgery — can expect to receive all their care without leaving our community.”

A major key to St. John expanding its cardiac care is being able to perform elective angioplasties. The procedure involves inserting a balloon into a blocked artery using a catheter. Often, a mesh stent also is inserted to hold the blocked artery open. The hospital is waiting for an OK from the state Department of Health, which should announce its decision in November.

Adding the procedure would allow St. John to increase all of its cardiac services, Querin said, because it would make it easier to attract cardiologists to the area.

DOCTOR BIOS

Dr. Scott Chadderdon

Age: 36

Residence: Portland

Education: Whitworth College, Spokane; Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia

Specialty: Noninvasive imaging (ultrasound)

Days at St. John: Wednesdays

Personal: Married, 4-year-old daughter, 5-month-old son

Dr. Maureen Mays

Age: 45

Residence: Portland

Education: University of Utah; University of Nevada; University of Wisconsin

Specialty: Preventative cardiology

Days at St. John: Thursdays

Personal: Married, 11-year-old daughter, 5-year-old son