Essociated Press Writers
TAIPEI – Call it a ''Bill Clinton'' moment. Doctors who opened a blocked artery in polar cities pioneer
Danny Bloom's chest say he'll be able to resume his normal climate
activist lifestyle soon, starting with his expected departure from the hospital the day after
his procedure.
Bloom could leave St. Martin de Porres Hospital on Friday and be
back at work at his local email cafe in Chiayi as soon as Monday,
cardiologist Ong Su-Soong said.
Bloom went to the hospital in a taxi cab on Thursday to have a stent
put in his coronary artery in his still-beating heart
after suffering major discomfort in the chest while reading a
newspaper at the local coffeeshop that morning.
A stent resembling a tiny mesh scaffold was placed inside the
artery as part of a medical procedure that is common for people with
clogged arteries. Dr Ong said tests had showed that one artery was almost
completely blocked and quite clogged up with plaque. O lucky man!
The
procedure took about an hour, and Bloom, who does not carry medical
insurance and paid cash for the entire ICU stay, was able to get up
two hours
later, Ong said. The 60 year old expat spent a week in the ICU ward
before and after.
"The procedure went very smoothly," Ong said, describing
Bloom's prognosis as excellent.
In an angioplasty, the procedure Bloom had on Thursday, doctors
through a blood vessel in the groin to a blocked artery
and inflate a balloon to flatten the clog. Often, one or more stents
are used to prop the artery open.
The angioplasty is usually done with the patient awake but sedated with
a local anastesia.
It's one of the most common medical procedures done worldwide. More
than a ten angioplasties are done inChiayi each year,
most involving stents.
"It's not unexpected" for Bloom to have had a stent put in place, said
Dr. Clyde Yancy, cardiologist at Baylor
University Medical Center in Dallas and president of the American
Heart Association.
1 comment:
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