Clinton Heart Surgery

[thomas7g]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/03/clinton.tests/index.html

It looks like our former President needs to have heart bypass surgury.

He seems in good health. But heart surgury is always a big thing.

Our hopes go out for him to get well soon.

:salute:

[BST]

He's young enough, that he'll be able to fully recover from this and be able to lead a very active life. He will need to pay more attention to diet and exercise, though.


Best wishes, Mr Clinton.

[Dawg]

:blink: He has a heart? :blink:

I thought all he had were a couple of.....um.....and a.......

:blink:

I am
Dawg
:warrior:

[BST]

:blink: He has a heart? :blink:

I thought all he had were a couple of.....um.....and a.......

:blink:

I am
Dawg
:warrior:


*thwack !!

:D

[Gemini1999]

:blink: He has a heart? :blink:

I thought all he had were a couple of.....um.....and a.......

:blink:

I am
Dawg
:warrior:

**double thwack**

The man's having major surgery and you make jokes.......? Oh, the inhumanity of it all..... :/:

[thomas7g]

He has a good heart....its just that other part of him that gets him into trouble. He can be a very naughty boy!
;)

But I still wish him the best of health!

[Archangel]

He's young enough, that he'll be able to fully recover from this and be able to lead a very active life. He will need to pay more attention to diet and exercise, though.


Best wishes, Mr Clinton.

Boy, you'd have thought that he got all the exercise he needed in the Oval Office. ;)

[BST]

Oh, forgive me, I thought he was just there in a supervisory status. ;)

[shiningstar]

:blink: He has a heart? :blink:

I thought all he had were a couple of.....um.....and a.......

:blink:

I am
Dawg
:warrior:

YOU can come to the THWACKING thread anytime :devil:
Even though I AM a Registered conservative republican ;)

[cranky1c]

My first mental health training experience was one of spending a year on a cardiac ICU and step down unit, talking with folks who had just undergone this kind of surgery. In doing so I got to learn a fair amount about the surgery and cardiac health. Despite how serious it is, this kind of surgery is VERY common with a relatively low (I think ~1/100) mortality rate. His youth and vitality don't hurt a bit either. My only concern is that The Senator from New York doesn't request any other "pipework" be carried out on the old dog while the opportunity presents itself.

Based on what's been reported on the news, it sounds like he's gonna be fine.

C1C (Who voted for the guy twice.)

[Darth Marley]

I can't help but think of those SNL skits with Clinton jogging in to a McD's and stealing food off people's trays.

The prophetic line "There are going to be a lot of things we don't tell Hillary about."

I noticed that AP ran and retracted a story about Republicans booing Clinton when they were told about his health. Turns out it was untrue.

[cranky1c]

I can't help but think of those SNL skits with Clinton jogging in to a McD's and stealing food off people's trays.

The prophetic line "There are going to be a lot of things we don't tell Hillary about."

That's funny.

[Rowan]

One of my friends is a Cardiac ICU nurse and I'd have to agree with cranky1c.
I've also job shadowed my friend a lot and talked a lot to him about his work 'cause it was something I was considering specializing in. I'm curious though if they will post special guards over him the first couple of days after surgery ...mania is a comon side effect for the first 48 hours meaning he will behave erraticly and say things that might be of a top security nature, could be interesting for the nursing staff LOL!

[shiningstar]

I can't help but think of those SNL skits with Clinton jogging in to a McD's and stealing food off people's trays.

The prophetic line "There are going to be a lot of things we don't tell Hillary about."

I noticed that AP ran and retracted a story about Republicans booing Clinton when they were told about his health. Turns out it was untrue.

I heard that story too ..........I'm glad it was proven to be false even though
I do despise the man .......I would never do that to anyone even HIM.

[shiningstar]

One of my friends is a Cardiac ICU nurse and I'd have to agree with cranky1c.
I've also job shadowed my friend a lot and talked a lot to him about his work 'cause it was something I was considering specializing in. I'm curious though if they will post special guards over him the first couple of days after surgery ...mania is a comon side effect for the first 48 hours meaning he will behave erraticly and say things that might be of a top security nature, could be interesting for the nursing staff LOL!
I would think his secret service people would be there.

[julix]

Has anyone heard how he is doing?????

[shiningstar]

I haven't heard a word Julix.

[BST]

Here's the latest:


http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040906_1107.html


Clinton Has Successful Quadruple Bypass
Bill Clinton Has Successful Quadruple Heart Bypass Surgery; Former President Resting Comfortably

The Associated Press



NEW YORK Sept. 6, 2004 — Bill Clinton had a successful quadruple heart bypass operation Monday to relieve severely clogged arteries that doctors said had put the former president in grave danger of a major heart attack sometime soon.
Clinton is expected to make a full recovery, but doctors said he was fortunate to have checked himself into the hospital when he did. The heart disease they repaired was extensive, and blockage in several of Clinton's arteries was "well over 90 percent," said Dr. Craig R. Smith, the surgeon who led the operation.


"There was a substantial likelihood that he would have had a substantial heart attack," said Dr. Allan Schwartz, chief of cardiology at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.

Smith said Clinton could leave the hospital in four or five days. Clinton was awake but sedated about four hours after the operation ended, Schwartz said.

The four-hour surgery came three days after Clinton arrived at the hospital complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. But doctors said Clinton's problems were not as sudden as had been portrayed. He had suffered shortness of breath and tightness in his chest for several months, blaming them on off-and-on exercising and acid reflux, his doctors said.

In addition, the former president had high blood pressure and may not have been adequately treated for high cholesterol. His doctors said Monday he was put on a cholesterol-lowering drug a few days ago. Clinton was prescribed cholesterol medicine in 2001 as he was leaving office.

In a statement, Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, thanked the hospital staff for helping the family through a trying time.

"Bill, Chelsea and I stayed up pretty late last night talking, playing games and just being with each other," the senator said. "These past few days have been quite an emotional roller-coaster for us."

She added: "The president's optimism and faith will carry him through the difficult weeks and months ahead of that we have no doubt."

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.

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.

As many as 30 percent of patients suffer "measurable but very subtle" problems in mental functioning after bypass, but those problems are gone within a year, Smith said.

Asked whether there were any troubling moments during the surgery, Smith said: "There are always a few minor anxious moments during heart surgery. There was nothing in this case that was outside the realm of routine."

Schwartz said it would be possible for Clinton in the future to lead an "extraordinarily active lifestyle" including hitting the campaign trail.

"He is recovering normally at this point. Right now everything looks straightforward," Smith said.

Still, 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.

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.

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, lowfat 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.

From his hospital room before the surgery, Clinton had a long telephone conversation with Kerry on campaign strategy, said a Democratic official familiar with the talk who spoke on condition of anonymity. Some polls have shown Kerry trailing President Bush since last week's Republican convention.

Both candidates wished Clinton the best after the surgery. "I know you will join with me in wishing President Clinton the very best wishes in the recovery from his surgery," President Bush said at a campaign rally in Poplar Bluff, Mo. "We just pray for a speedy recovery."

Meanwhile, more than 45,000 get-well wishes 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."


Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann in Poplar Bluff, Mo., and Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this story.

[cranky1c]

Well this is good news. Thanks for the post.

[shiningstar]

Here's the latest:


http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040906_1107.html


Clinton Has Successful Quadruple Bypass
Bill Clinton Has Successful Quadruple Heart Bypass Surgery; Former President Resting Comfortably

The Associated Press

Thanks Bst. I guess now he'll have to take better care of himself.