-- Former President Bill Clinton hospitalized in New York City, ABC News reports.
According to reports, he experienced chest pains and went to his Cardiologists who sent him to one of the New York Hospitals where he underwent a procedure that put 2 stents to open one of his blocked arteries in his heart. This procedure goes by several names such as Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA), Balloon Angioplasty, Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI), or Coronary Angioplasty and was first developed in 1977 by a Dr. Andreas Gruentzig of Switzerland.
The first procedure took place Friday Sept 16, 1977 at Zurich, Switzerland[1]. Adoption of the procedure was quickened subsequent to Gruentzig's move to Emory University in the United States. Gruentzig's first fellow at Emory was Merril Knudtson, who by 1981 had already introduced it to Calgary, Alberta, Canada[2]. By the mid-1980s, many leading medical centers throughout the world were adopting the procedure as a treatment for coronary artery disease (CAD). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percutaneous_...
I work with these kind of patients all the time and although the procedure can be done in 30 minutes to 3 hours, there are risks such as bleeding if a artery is accidently ruptured which would require emergency open heart surgery. Other risks include chances of the stent being dislodged thereby causing the artery to close, clots or plaques being dislodged from the artery and traveling to other parts of the body such as brain (stroke) or lungs (pulmonary embolism).
Each case is different depending on the risk factors of the person like age, medical history, life style, and diet. My heart (no puns intended) and prayers are with the Clinton family.
P.S. I'm really glad he wasn't in Haiti during this bout of chest pain.
Thanks for your comments here Sister Irma. Thanks for remembering President Clinton in your time of meditation.
Sunday, February 14th 2010 at 5:50AM
Jen Fad
Jen, I am so glad that our former president is going to be alright. I do like Clinton, both as a person and as a politician.And, because he allows me to be able see him in and out of these roles as separate roles, I am able to have a lot more respect for him.
Thanks and I will keep him in my prayers, my sister.(smile)
Thursday, April 10th 2014 at 6:47PM
ROBINSON IRMA
