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Clinton recovering after bypass surgery
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-07 14:18 Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was
recovering after a quadruple heart bypass operation to relieve arteries so
severely clogged that they posed imminent danger of a major heart attack.
His heart disease was extensive, with blockages in some arteries "well over
90 percent," said Dr. Craig R. Smith, the surgeon who led the four-hour
operation at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia on Monday.
Dr. Craig R. Smith, chief of the Division of
Cardiothoracic surgery at the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University
Medical Center uses a model of a human heart to explain to reporters the
heart bypass surgery he performed on former U.S. President Bill Clinton,
Monday, Sept. 6, 2004, in New
York.[AP] |
"There was a substantial likelihood that he would have had a substantial
heart attack," said Dr. Allan Schwartz, chief of cardiology. Doctors called
Clinton's operation successful and said his return to full health will take
weeks.
The former president also had high blood pressure and may not have been
adequately treated for high cholesterol. His doctors said he was put on a
cholesterol-lowering drug a few days ago. Clinton was prescribed cholesterol
medicine in 2001 as he was leaving office.
This 31 May,1999,
file photo shows then US President Bill Clinton. Clinton was admitted to a
New York City hospital 03 September, 2004, where he will undergo heart
bypass surgery. [AFP/File] | "These past few days have been quite an emotional roller-coaster for us,"
Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said in a statement. "The
president's optimism and faith will carry him through the difficult weeks and
months ahead — of that we have no doubt."
The 58-year-old former president went to the hospital late last week after
complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath, but doctors revealed Monday
that he'd had these symptoms for several months. They said he had blamed them on
lapses in his exercise routine and acid reflux.
It was finally discovered that the problem was his heart after one episode
occurred while he was resting and lasted longer than before, they said. Clinton
could leave the hospital in four or five days.
In bypass surgery, doctors remove one or more blood vessels from elsewhere in
the body — in Clinton's case, two arteries from the chest and a vein from the
leg — and attach them to arteries serving the heart, detouring blood around
blockages.
Schwartz said it would be possible for Clinton in the future to lead an
"extraordinarily active lifestyle" — including hitting the campaign trail to
promote Democrats running this year.
Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood, chief cardiovascular surgeon at East Carolina
University and a spokesman for the American College of Cardiology, agreed with
Clinton's doctors that the president had been in a dangerous state leading up to
the operation.
"Within the next couple of weeks, something was going to happen," he said.
Former US President
Clinton jogs in Washington in this Sept. 15, 1994 file photo. Clinton had
a successful quadruple heart bypass operation Monday, Sept. 6, 2004 to
relieve clogged arteries, three days after checking himself into the
hospital complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath.
[AP/File] | Doctors delayed surgery until Monday because Clinton was on the
blood-thinning medication Plavix, and waiting a few days decreased the chance of
excessive bleeding, they said.
During the operation, Clinton's heart was stopped and he was put on a
heart-lung machine for 73 minutes. That process, used for more than 75 percent
of bypass patients, carries a small risk of stroke and neurological
complications.
Clinton was described as upbeat in the days before the surgery, resting with
his wife and daughter. One New York Post photo showed the former president
reaching for a Boggle game near his hospital room window.
Clinton has blamed his heart problems in part on genetics — there is a
history of heart disease in his mother's family — but also said he "may have
done some damage in those years when I was too careless about what I ate."
He was lampooned during his presidency for his inability to resist fatty fast
food, but he was also an avid jogger during his two terms in the White House. In
recent months he has appeared much slimmer. He has said he cut out junk food,
begun working out and adopted the low-carbohydrate, low-fat South Beach diet.
Clinton had planned to campaign for Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee
for president, but the recovery from surgery will take him off the stump — at
least for now — with just two months left until the election.
More than 45,000 get-well wishes have poured in for Clinton, including tens
of thousands of e-mails sent to the Web site of his presidential library.
"You are surrounded by cherished family, friends and a nation that adores you
and prays for your full and complete recovery," wrote Toni Maryanna Rossi.
"You'll be jogging 5 miles a day in no time."
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