Posted on 09/03/2004 5:31:21 PM PDT by MaineRepublic
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Former President Bill Clinton, whose appetite for fast food and fluctuating waistline cemented his pudgy persona with the public, will undergo heart bypass surgery as early as Saturday in a New York hospital because of heavy blockages of his arteries.
Clinton's prospects are good for a full recovery from a surgery that's performed on more than 300,000 people each year with a 97.6 percent survival rate. The several hours of surgery will involve taking other arteries or veins and rerouting blood away from blocked areas and into the heart.
Clinton, 58, who suffered "mild chest pain and shortness of breath" Thursday afternoon, went to Northern Westchester Hospital and, after tests, was sent home later that night, according to a statement from the former president's office in Harlem. After more tests at Westchester on Friday morning, Clinton was transferred to New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan for upcoming surgery.
"He's in excellent hands and he's at one of the great hospitals in the world," his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said Friday at the New York State Fair in Syracuse as she left to be with the former president and their daughter Chelsea at the hospital.
The hospital and the former president's office aren't releasing details of the surgery, which reportedly is being planned as a quadruple bypass.
The former president is relatively young for the surgery, experts said, which means he has a better than average chance of undergoing surgery without complications and resuming a normal life. More than half of the nation's bypass surgeries are performed on people 65 and older.
"Once you get the grafts on you, you're good to go. Essentially you've got a re-load on the shotgun," said Dr. Randolph Chitwood, the chief of cardiothoracic surgery at East Carolina University's School of Medicine, who underwent bypass surgery when he was 47. "I consider I was recharged and ready to go again."
The surgery is much like installing new plumbing, Chitwood said. It involves putting inch-long patches of arteries or veins from elsewhere - legs, arms or elsewhere in the chest - around the blockages. Most of the time, the patient's heart is stopped during the operation, but for patients older than Clinton is, doctors sometimes do the surgery while the heart continues to beat, Chitwood said.
The procedure is relatively rare for men Clinton's age. Only 5 of 1,000 men aged 45 to 64 had bypass surgery in 2001, according to statistics kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On average, the surgery cost about $61,000 in 2001. The government pays ex-presidents' medical bills.
Bypass surgery generally isn't done unless 75 percent of an artery is blocked, said Dr. George Sopko, a cardiologist at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md.
The fact that the surgery is scheduled and not done on an emergency basis is a good sign, said Dr. Luca Vricella, a cardiac surgeon and professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
However, Vricella said the fact that Clinton is getting bypass surgery instead of less invasive procedures - angioplasty or stents such as Vice President Dick Cheney - means the blockage is too extensive or too complicated to be fixed with stents or a balloon inserted through arteries.
"Quadruple bypass means you have a multiple vessel disease, a pretty advanced disease," Sopko told Knight Ridder.
A number of factors, including weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and genetics, cause arterial blockages, the doctors said.
Clinton in January 2001 was put on a cholesterol-lowering prescription because of elevated "bad" cholesterol of 177, up from 134, Dr. Connie Mariano, the president's personal physician, told reporters in a briefing three-and-a-half years ago. Recent studies indicate ideally that number should be in the 60-to-70 range, Sopko said Friday.
Mariano said she talked to Clinton about his cholesterol levels and said the president "acknowledges that it's a combination of not the right type of diet, food that's on the road and long hours, and also not enough exercise."
Clinton, who's lost weight since he left the White House, often talked about being on the trendy South Beach Diet. But on Wednesday, the former president was seen in New Orleans eating gumbo, catfish, black-eyed peas and fried beignets - fried sugared donuts - during his book tour.
Chitwood said he doubted that weight was an issue for Clinton's artery disease.
"I don't think the president is really obese, he's kind of chunky," Chitwood said.
Clinton left office weighing 214 pounds, which is considered overweight for someone 6-foot, 2-inches tall, according to the federal government.
Both President Bush and his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, wished the former president well during campaign appearances. Some in Bush's audience booed when he wished Clinton well, while those in Kerry's cheered.
OMG, if I were a doctor seeing an ex-President for chest pain, there is no F'n way I would send him home.
Remember Gerald Ford being sent home with what was thought to be an ear infection and turned out to be a TIA? Interestingly enough, it was during the GOP convention (can't recall if it was '96 or 2000)
"He's in excellent hands and he's at one of the great hospitals in the world," his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said...
I say she gave him the evil eye, just like when David Letterman got a bypass the day after she was on his show.
Exactly, the left,with the help of their cohorts,the majority of the MSM,break the rules all the time,without an ounce of shame.
Then they have the audacity to MAKE UP lies about people on the right,because they don't generally do those classless kinds of things!
I wish Mr Clinton well,as one human to another,and as a person who loves her family and can empathise with his.
But the MSM couldn't leave it at that,they had to make up lies to once again cast the right as the heartless callous politically blinded ones,after that shameful performance of THEIRS at Paul Wellstone's funeral.
THAT'S the kind of thing that makes me despise them so un-cordially,that pattern of utter shamelessness.It's hard to fight shamelessness-honor is not a virtue with them,it's a weakness to laugh at.
Great one, good for yew!
(what is this Dr. Seuss?)
Ouch. I am nearly two decades younger, three inches shorter and....*enough*...pounds heavier.
And could it have been the shock to hear he had a heart?
They've been known to lie before....
The Fort Worth Star Telegram frequently sits at grocery store entrances here and they can not GIVE away their leftist trash....LOL. Glad I'm no paper boy. Business must be tough these days.
You should be fine if you get regular check ups, exercise a little more, and avoid looking Mrs. Clinton directly in the eye. (see post #101)
I don't like Bill Clinton. I never have. I never will. And if I had been at Bush's rally I would have made the AP's story true. And I don't give a damn what anybody thinks of me because of it. He (Clinton) did major harm to this country so in my mind he is an enemy of this country.
Screw 'im.
According to Susan Estrich, The Plan now is to inject as many lies into the campaign as possible, backed by big money in some cases, so that some will stick and injure Bush.
bttt
The hypocrisy on the left, if it wasn't so predictable, would be stunning.
Only a few years ago the news media had tried to make Clinton seem like a fit marathon runner --- I think most of us knew that was nothing but a lie.
Call News Desk here: 212-621-1500
and Corporate Headquarters here: 212-621-6060
Also email: info@ap.org
I called tonight and sent this email:
AP News Service:
At 13:57 today, AP News issued a false report of booing at a Bush Rally when the President announced prayers and good wishes for the speeding recovery of former President Clinton.
I understand that a later report did not mention any booing. However, many Americans will only know of the original report and not the later corrected one.
Eye witnesses at the Bush Rally report there was silent respect and NO BOOS when the President asked for prayers for Mr. Clinton.
The real story here is who with AP wire service put out the false report which portrayed President Bush and the Rally attendee as mean and heartless?
I request that AP issue a prompt public apology to President Bush and those at the Rally.
In addition, I request that the individual who put out the false report be reprimanded.
You can check into who was in charge of the news room that by looking at the time of the report.
Click here: Boston Globe Online: http://www.boston.com/dailynews/247/region/Audience_boos_as_Bush_offers_bP.shtml
Audience boos as Bush offers best wishes for Clinton's recovery
By Associated Press, 9/3/2004 13:57
Please let me know what you are doing to make amends for this very serious matter.
name, town & phone number
Gee, you'd think the AP thought most of us forgot about the years of vicious assaults from the Left on Ronald Reagan, even as recent as a year ago, after it was learned he had Alzheimers.
News that's fit to invent.
I really don't understand all this love and compassion and prayers for a speedy recovery etc etc etc --- what about his victims at Waco? Or Vince Foster or Ron Brown? Or the fact that he was kissing Arafat while the Arabs had attempted to destroy the WTC once and then continued making plans to try it again. Or his bombing of the Serbs? How many deaths did Bill Clinton cause either directly or indirectly?
I'll remember how he was at Ron Brown's funeral --- yukking it up with his buddies until he saw the camera pointed in his direction and suddenly changed his expression wiped a pretend tear from his eye. That's the same way you'd see me crying at a Clinton funeral. Only for the cameras.
I was just thinking about something: I wonder if Bill's valve job was hillary's idea? Uncle Joe Stalin, the RATs best buddy, used to order his political rivals to go into the hospital for an operation, where some doctor would "accidentally" administer a little too much anesthetic to the poor sap. If I was slick willie, I'd be very nervous.
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