Just a Heartbeat Away ...Incoming veep has a little Indiana in his heart. Somewhere, deep in his heart, incoming Vice President Dick Cheney must have a fond place for Indiana. After all, it was the product of an Indiana company that allowed him to bounce back so quickly from his November heart attack. What doctors at George Washington University George Washington University, at Washington, D.C.; coeducational; chartered 1821 as Columbian College (one of the first nonsectarian colleges), opened 1822, became a university in 1873, renamed 1904. Medical Center did for Cheney was insert a stent, designed to prop open an obstructed artery. The company behind this particular stent was Indianapolis-based Guidant Corp. "We understand that the coronary stent coronary stent Intracoronary stent Cardiology An expandable tubular device which can be inserted percutaneously, and left within a coronary artery lumen to maintain its patency Pros Clinical and angiographic outcomes are better with intracoronary artery stent that Vice President-elect Dick Cheney received is a Guidant stent called the Multi-Link Tetra Coronary Stent," says Guidant spokesman Rob Allen. "Guidant received FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. approval to market the Tetra in the U.S. in October 2000." Indeed, just in time to help Cheney. The 59-year-old Cheney, doctors say, suffered from a severely blocked artery, shut down by 90 to 95 percent. When he arrived at the hospital the morning before Thanksgiving, he had a quick angiogram an·gi·o·gram n. An angiographic x-ray of blood vessels used in diagnosing pathological conditions of the cardiovascular system.//An x-ray of one or more blood vessels produced by angiography and used in diagnosing pathology in the cardiovascular , which alerted doctors to the need for an immediate balloon angioplasty that cleared the artery and made room for Guidant's stent. A coronary stent is a wire mesh tube that is permanently implanted inside a stricken artery. After surgeons inflate a small balloon to open the artery, they insert the stent, which keeps the artery from closing again. Among the prominent developers of stents are Guidant and another Hoosier company, Cook Inc. of Bloomington. Implanting a stent is an increasingly common procedure, one shown by recent research to be highly effective. It's not a complete cure of a patient's heart problems, though, as evidenced by the comments of one Hoosier inadvertently caught in the storm of debate about Cheney's health and his fitness to serve as vice president. Dr. Douglas Zipes, chief of cardiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine The Indiana University School of Medicine is the medical school of Indiana University, part of the Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Established in 1903, the school had an initial class of 25 students. and the president-elect of the American College of Cardiology The American College of Cardiology (ACC) is a nonprofit medical association established in 1949 to educate, research and influence health care public policy. The president for the 2006–2007 year is Steven E. Nissen. [1] The organization has 39 chapters in the U.S. , offered Newsweek a rather alarming assessment: "I don't want anybody panicking, but I sure as hell would have an automated external defibrillator automated external defibrillator Emergency medicine A portable device designed for use by first-response personnel for out-of-hospital emergency treatment of Pts suffering from cardiac arrest. See First-response personnel. in his office or close by, and people who know how to do CPR Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Definition Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a procedure to support and maintain breathing and circulation for a person who has stopped breathing (respiratory arrest) and/or whose heart has stopped (cardiac ." Not a very ringing endorsement of the health of the man who's just a heartbeat away from the presidency. Zipes later pulled back from his strong statement when he learned more of the details of Cheney's case, saying that he felt more reassured. In any case, executives at Guidant were pleased to provide the news media with diagrams and product information when it became known that Cheney had one of its devices in his veins. For a stent manufacturer it's good public relations having the incoming vice president entrust his life to one of your products. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion