Couple join Roseburg cardiology team – NRToday.com

Husband and wife David and Hilary Oakes both come from medical families. Davids father, older brother and stepbrother are all anesthesiologists. Hilarys mother and grandmother were both nurses.

So perhaps its no surprise that the newest additions to the Shaw Heart and Vascular Centers medical team wound up caring for patients too. The Oakeses moved to Roseburg from Boise, Idaho, in October. Hes an electrophysiologist, a cardiologist who specializes in the hearts electrical system, while shes a nurse practitioner with a specialty in cardiology.

Each of them toyed with the idea of choosing a different path. David thought he might go into coaching, while Hilary thought she was too squeamish to become a nurse.

Everyone said oh youd be so great at nursing, you should be a nurse, and I thought no way, there are too many gross things in nursing, Hilary said.

But she loved her science classes at Boise State University and began studying for a nursing degree thinking she might go into nursing education. Then she got a job as a nurse apprentice on a cardiac floor at St. Lukes Boise Medical Center.

I just fell in love with it, she said.

Her cardiology specialty was something she just fell into because thats where she landed in school, but she finds it rewarding because she sees patients when they are very ill but then after treatment sees them feeling much better.

David said his father encouraged him to go into medicine.

He just loved medicine and he used to jokingly say to me, The nice thing about medicine is if you just stay sober and answer the phone you can make a pretty good living, he said.

I grew up around doctors and maybe the golden age of medicine, David said. They all seemed really happy and loved it, and they really set a shining example of medicine.

David kept thinking about that, and it influenced his decision to go into premed, and then to medical school. He did his post-graduate training at UCLA, and chose cardiology, and then electrophysiology, as a specialty.

Its fairly critical. Theres a lot of life and death stuff coming on. I used to see when people were having cardiac arrest or people were in cardiac shock or people were dying or having dangerous heart rhythms, he said. The cardiologist would show up at UCLA and it was sort of like the guy would show up on his white horse and the seas would part, and everyone was so glad to see the cardiologist.

New developments in electrophysiology have made it possible to make precise maps of the hearts electrical system and to perform some dramatic interventions that can restore heart health to patients who were nearly at deaths door even patients on hospice have been turned around and patients on transplant lists have found they no longer need a new heart.

Oakes jokes that the other cardiologists are the plumbers, while he is the electrician. Hes excited about growing the electrophysiology program here.

After about 10 years as a nurse, Hilary Oakes went back to school to become a nurse practitioner. She follows up with patients who need ongoing care, including making sure theyre able to stay on and, if necessary, increase their medications. In addition to ensuring patients get that follow-up, her work frees up the cardiologists to take on new patients and get very ill patients into the office quickly.

The Oakeses enjoy outdoor activities like running and mountain biking, and they used to ski quite a bit in Boise. They havent skied since they moved here in October, though. Theyve gotten used to being warmer in the winter, and they like it.

We went snowmobiling on Christmas Day, and we walked out of the car and we thought its freezing. Why did we come here? Hilary said.

Dave has grown kids from a previous marriage, but the couple just has two fur babies English bulldogs at home that they enjoy spoiling. Hilary said she also enjoys learning about the local wines. Thats a hobby her husband doesnt share.

Wine, no matter how much I drink it, still tastes like Robitussin, he said.

They love being able to work together, and that was one of the reasons they chose to relocate to Roseburg. Hilary said she is able to learn a lot from her husband.

One of his great characteristics is that he is just great at teaching, she said. We work really well together.

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Couple join Roseburg cardiology team - NRToday.com