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.
Somebody needs to be fired over this. There's definitely some maliciousness at work.
The proof is in the audio.
That's not enough. Search google news for 'bush clinton booed'
I heard the tape. When the President first announced that Clinton was in the hospital, it was as though the audience said a muffled, "Oh!" expressing surprise. When he asked people to wish Clinton well, the people applauded. I heard NO boos. Shame on the media for lying about these good people. Republicans don't doctor tapes like Hillery did after the 9/11 audience DID boo her.
No, they were cheering when Bush asked everyone to send Clinton their thoughts and prayers. It was very respectful.
Everyone now needs to email KnightRidder to tell them to stop spreading this lie.
Well, their cover is "If two people in a crowd of 30,000 booed, which probably happened, then we can say 'some.'"
The bias never stops. I was watching the Capitol Report on CNBC until I had to turn it off. They were glowing about Kerry's midnight madness speech, trashed Bush's speech as lies and mis-statements about Iraq & the economy, not a single person there to present the other side.
And their odds analyst said Bush's lead will be gone in a few days, that's it's the same as Kerry's was!
AP CAUGHT LYING: No boos at Bush rally in Wisconsin (I was there)
The Associated Propagandists ought to be ashamed. Even Thomas of Newsweek bragged that the media was in the tank for Kerry and would give him 15 points. If W had those 15 now he'd be 25 points up. It's just about time to organize against the MSM and their sponsors and parent companies.
When we boo they will know it.
There was no booing. What a bunce of liars. People actually cheered! I detest Clinton, but I would never wish him bad health and hope that he comes through this surgery fine.
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