By Angie Thompson, Senior Reporter
TIFTON — Heart disease is common in the family of two local sisters, Angela Phillips Jones and Selina Burney. With that, one will be by the other’s side as she has surgery April 8.
To help raise money for the procedure and other expenses, a benefit gospel sing is scheduled for April 2. and a fund has been established at Ameris Bank.
Jones, 43, was a stay-at-home mom until February 2005 when she began working as a substitute teacher. One day in 2008, she arrived at Annie Belle Clark Primary School feeling tired and winded. She entered the building, and the secretary there asked her if she was okay.
“I told her I was,” Jones said. “Thirty minutes later, the secretary came to check on me. I told her then that I wasn’t okay.”
Jones was taken to Tift Regional Medical Center. She had a heart attack that night. A heart catheterization the next morning revealed that she had “thrown a blood clot,” Jones said, and a physician there implanted a stent. Another larger stent was implanted last year.
Jones said Dr. Paul Murray, a Tifton cardiologist, told her that she needed heart surgery, and sent her to specialists in Albany. The doctors there told her that they wouldn’t perform the surgery, because of her having diabetes and being overweight. Jones then went to a heart surgeon at Emory University Hospital Midtown for a second opinion.
“He said I had a 95 percent chance of coming through, and living a healthy life,” Jones said.
“We’ve talked about the worst that can happen, but just a little,” said Burney. “We have faith everything will be ok.”
The sisters said Saturday the opportunity for Jones to have the surgery was a blessing and, as unusual as it sounds, they are both looking forward to it and have faith the outcome will be positive.
Jones and Burney are the daughters of Margaret Phillips. They also have a half-brother, Kenny Phillips, and all live in Tifton. The siblings’ father died in 1992 as a result of a heart attack, and his parents also both died of heart disease. Phillips’ father also died of a heart attack, and her mother lives in Ty Ty.
Jones and her husband, Ronnie Keith Jones, have two children, Christy, 21, and Ryan, 12, who attends Eighth Street Middle School. She is also very close to Burney’s children, Lindsey and Austin Griner, McKenzie and David Cole Burney and Jordan and Aubrey Phillips. When Burney had her son David Cole, she had complications and a longer recovery time than usually. She said Jones helped take care of him and the two became very close.
“He loves her move than me,” Burney said with a smile. “That’s okay. She’s my girl. There’s just something about her. Kids just love her.
“I love my family very much and I thank God for such a wonderful and close family.”
Jones said her son Ryan’s birthday is April 21 and she plans on being there.
“I might not be there with bells on, but there will be a party and I’ll be there,” Jones said. “God didn’t bring me this far for something to happen.”
Jones will have to travel to Emory for a heart catheterization on April 6, so the doctors there can assess her heart’s condition and determine exactly what needs to be done during surgery. She will then have the surgery on April 8, be in ICU for approximately two days, and in the hospital up to another 10 before she can return home to recuperate some more.
Jones’ husband has medical insurance through his job at the Georgia Department of Transportation, but there will still be expenses for family members to travel to and from Atlanta. Jones said she won’t be able to return to her substitute teaching job for the rest of the year, but hopes to begin her work again in the fall.
The benefit gospel sing will feature The Changing Times of Adel, and Called Out from Nashville and will begin at 7:30 p.m. April 2 at Sonrise Chapel, 3802 Tift Ave., Tifton. An account to benefit Jones has been established at Ameris Bank for anyone who would like to contribute.
To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.
