Support group is Rx for professor’s heart condition

September 8, 2025- DENTON - Wayne Brewer was a little disappointed when he received the list of classes he was going to teach as a first-year professor in the School of Physical Therapy at TWU's Houston campus 11 years ago.

With his background as a clinician, he was hoping to teach an orthopedics class. Instead, he was given introduction to cardiopulmonary physical therapy. He knew the subject pertaining to heart and lung diseases, but it wasn't an area of expertise.

Turns out, the class helped save his life.

In April 2014, just a few months after he started teaching at TWU, Brewer was diagnosed with a rare form of heart failure. He quickly immersed himself in learning about this chronic disease that affects 6 million Americans because it was something he was now living with. And, he needed to digest the material so he could teach it to his first-year doctor of physical therapy students.

Along with his students, he was learning about cardiac symptoms such as dizziness and lightheadedness, when those symptoms are normal and when you need to go see your physician. In those first few years, he didn't tell his students about his condition.

"You are talking about mortality and morbidity, and students don't know I was dealing with this, and I had to go home a lot of times and put it in perspective how I was feeling after I was teaching this information," Brewer said.

Brewer was also having conversations with his physician about the anxiety and depression that can go along with this disease. When he was diagnosed, he was in his 40s. Were there others who knew what he was going through?

In partnership with Houston Methodist Hospital, Brewer founded a heart failure support group in 2018. The group started with five members that met weekly at a church near the hospital to connect, educate and learn from experts.

The support group moved online because of COVID and its numbers started to grow. Brewer invited guest speakers from Houston Methodist: physicians, nurses, dietitians. Now, they meet monthly via Zoom with as many as 50 members.

"It's really a godsend," Brewer said of the support group. "One, to be able to help people and not to sound cliche with it, but really take lemons and make lemonade. Really take something that is such a negative and turn it into something where it can help people."

All heart failure patients at Houston Methodist Hospital are given discharge paperwork that includes support group contact information. Brewer estimates that hundreds of people have benefitted from the support.

For his community work, Brewer will receive the Heartfelt Hero Award from the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA), a multidisciplinary organization working to improve and expand heart failure care through collaboration, education, research, innovation and advocacy. He will be recognized at the HFSA Annual Scientific Meeting from Sept. 26-29 in Minneapolis.

The award recognizes patients or caregivers who, through their voice and actions in the heart failure community, demonstrate unwavering commitment to improving patients' lives and inspiring others on their journeys.

"I feel like it's so wonderful to be acknowledged for the work that I do," Brewer said. "It's a real labor of love more than anything else. It's actually instilled into my professional life because of living with this and also teaching students who eventually work with patients that have this disorder, how to manage this and how to understand the plight of someone living with this chronic disease."

Brewer still teaches the cardiopulmonary class. He says he loves all his courses, but that one is special to him. A few years ago, he started divulging his condition to his students.

"It was a weird quandary that I was in," Brewer said. "I am sitting here talking about people with heart conditions in the third person. These individuals, these people, when I'm the one sitting here dealing with it."

More than 10 years after being diagnosed, Brewer says he is pretty healthy, but his condition has affected his life greatly.

"It's something that you always think about," said Brewer. "I have a defibrillator implanted and I've had to go to hospital a couple times when the defibrillator shocked me."

Brewer wears many hats with the support group. He sends out emails to the members, connects with speakers, and acts as a liaison between the group and the hospital. Once a year, Brewer sets up an in-person symposium at Houston Methodist where physicians, dietitians, nurses and support group members discuss various topics on how to live with heart failure.

Through the support group, Brewer has formed a community of people with whom he can connect and share. But he has also developed friendships. Not only with people in the support group but also with physicians and nurses at the hospital.

"We formed this community of people that are dedicated to really helping people with heart failure," Brewer said. "That's been an enriching part of my life. Certainly, I would love to not have heart failure but given what I have and these are the cards that I have dealt with, I don't think I would have it any other way."

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