Posted on 10/13/2004 11:37:33 AM PDT by marktuoni
"...it is very rare to put someone in for the kind of surgery he had on an emergency basis without having a cardiac event first."
I'm not sure what you mean by a "cardiac event". If you mean a heart attack I never had one but my by-pass surgery was done on an emergency basis.
I just had an on again- off again pain in my chest, nothing really debilitating, just annoying. One night it was keeping me awake so I went to the emergency room to satisfy my wife's angst (and to quell her bitchin'). The staff there diagnosed it as angina and I was transported immediately to a large hospital in the neighboring county. The following day I was operated on.
I got a nosicomial (sp?) infection and spent 75 days in the hospital rather than the normal 4-5 days. All in all, I wouldn't want to go through that again.
Wow Juanita, that's mean!
Angina is a cardiac event. It is a measurable, discreet, event. That is separate from the general "shortness of breath" type symptoms Clinton has been reported to have had prior to his surgery.
Tachycardia (fast heart beat) and bradycardia (slow heart beat) generally are not considered "events," unless they're extreme and don't settle out themselves. Though not always a big problem, arrhythmia is almost always looked at as an event and, of course, myocardial infarction is a severe cardiac events.
Now, this is all from long ago and far in my past, but I have kept in touch and haven't seen anything radically change in discussions of these types of things.
Biggest difference then and now is that when I was taught CPR you were supposed to start with the chest thump to see if you could restart a fibrillating heart. They now say you're not supposed to do that. Hey, I brought back three folks with that little technique, so I don't care, I'll still do it. I'll plead ignorance if they complain.
He hasn't had to see Hillary this many days in succession since he left the White House.
From a strictly political position it would be in Hillary's best intrest for Bill not to make it. Arkanacide by illness anyone.
Hillary would get reelected/elected simply on the sympathy vote. All the dough Bill has made over the past 4 would be hers alone.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.