September 6, at one of America’s top Christian hospitals, his spokesman told reporters.
Medical officials told reporters that preparations began in the New York-Presbyterian Hospital at about 6:45 a.m. Clinton spokesman Jim Kennedy confirmed that the surgery was complete and successful nearly seven hours later just before 1:30 p.m, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported.
The 58-year old Clinton, known for his love of fast food, was hospitalized Friday after suffering chest pains and shortness of breath. His surgical team was being led by Dr. Craig R. Smith, chief of cardiothoracic surgery, several American news media quoted medical sources as saying.
In bypass surgery, doctors remove a blood vessel from elsewhere in the body and attach it to the heart, detouring blood around blockages. The vessel typically comes from the leg, although doctors sometimes take it from an arm or the stomach, medical experts said.
"While bypass surgery certainly isn’t something to look forward to, we are very lucky that the condition was detected in time to have this procedure before something more serious occurred," a statement on Clinton Foundation’s Web site added.
"BLESSED WITH PRAYERS"
It said Clinton feels "blessed and grateful for the thousands of prayers and messages of good will we have received these past few days," as he received more than 30,000 get-well messages over the past several days.
Ahead of the surgery, Clinton admitted last week he was a little bit afraid. ""I guess I’m a little scared, but not much," he told the Cable News Network (CNN) last week. "I’m looking forward to it. I want to get back — I want to see what it’s like to run five miles again," he told CNN’s Larry King Live.
Clinton said he had had "some difficulty every since I got out of the White House" in running distances for exercise, and had "tightness in my chest" recently, which prompted him to seek medical attention.
During his presidency from 1993 until 2001, Clinton had a reputation for eating fast-food meals and he admitted this may have added to the problem. A medical report in January 2001 showed he had an above-normal cholesterol level and borderline high blood pressure.
"Some of this is genetic, and I may have done some damage in those years when I was too careless about what I ate," the former president told CNN Friday, September 3. "So for whatever reason, I’ve got a problem and I’ve got a chance to deal with it. I feel really blessed, you know, because a lot of people who have a heart attack never get any advance warning," Clinton said.
FATTY PLAQUE
CNN’s Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, said an angiogram showed Clinton has blockages in some of his coronary arteries, which feed the heart muscle. "The vessels can become blocked by fatty plaque over the years," he said.
He predicted Clinton’s chance of survival was 99 percent. "Being relatively young and healthy will help," Gupta said. Since leaving office, Clinton has lost weight, and he told talk show host Oprah Winfrey that he had gone on The South Beach Diet.
President George W. Bush on Friday, September 3, told a campaign rally that Clinton "is in our thoughts and prayers."
Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry also wished Clinton well.
"ROUTINE PROCEDURE"
Doctors say the surgery is "a routine procedure" and Clinton should recover within a month or two. His wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea were with him in the hospital.
The New York-Presbyterian Hospital was formed by the merger in 1997 of The New York Hospital and The Presbyterian Hospital, two institutions with long histories.
The New York Hospital, the second oldest hospital in the country, was founded in 1771 by a Royal Charter granted by King George III of England. The Presbyterian Hospital was founded in 1868 by James Lenox, a prominent New Yorker devoted to public and private philanthropy, its Internet website said.
