From the NY Times January 19, 2003
Gains on Heart Disease Leave More Survivors, and Questions.
"The numbers have been inching down for decades, but only lately have doctors begun to appreciate how profoundly things have changed for heart attacks and strokes.
"The stereotypical heart attack patient is no longer a man in his 50's who suddenly falls dead. Instead, the typical patient is a man or woman of 70 or older, who survives.
"The decline in smoking rates did not markedly affect heart disease and stroke death rates, said Dr. Lee Goldman, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.
"A more important factor, Dr. Goldman said, is that treatment for heart attacks has changed radically."
That would be the best news in a decade, to think the man would have to go job hunting and start actually earn his money, he would of course have to give up a lot of luxuries.......... oh well, such is life.
Three of our open heart surgeons were "laid-off", actually found jobs in the Baltimore area because we have gone from doing 6 to 8 open hearts a day to that many in a week. The reason, stents, statins and better angioplasty.