Bill Clinton hospitalized for heart bypass surgery (not political) (1 Viewer)

[Danny Tse]

Breaking news....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ple_clinton_dc

 

[Carl Johnson]

I'm sorry to hear that. My natural response is if the former president who's surely being watched over by some of the best doctors the country has to offer can come down with heart disease then it can happen to anybody.

 

[Hugh Jackes]

His father died young (alcoholism), so he doesn't really have a feel for his cardiac history on dad's side of the family.

I wonder how the medical care for former Presidents compares to the care for the current President? Equally to-notch or a cut below. I know that they all continue with Secret Service protection until their demise, even Reagan, who couldn't remember his own name at the end, but I know less about their level of medical care.

As a candidate and President, he never released his full medical records (as most do). Not to be conspiratorial, but could he have known something that about his heart health (contrary to my comment in the first paragraph). Sounds like Martin Sheen in The West Wing, doesn't it?

 

[Rob Willey]

His biological father died young, in a car crash. His stepfather was the alcoholic.

Rob

 

[ThomasC]

I thought they only got it for 10 years after their term(s) ended.

 

[D. Scott MacDonald]

They used to get SS protection for life, but Clinton signed a bill to limit this coverage (which applies to everybody after him, but not to him directly)

 

[Hugh Jackes]

Nope. This one I am right on. Any President, former or otherwise, is a propaganda target to the bad guys. What I am not sure about is their family members. Jimmy Carter still has SS protection. If he dies before Rosalind, she will keep SS agents around her until her death. I wonder, though, about Amy Carter. 50+ years of some guy in a black suit tailing her every move? One caveat to what I said. A president can dismiss his Secret Service detail. Nixon did.

EDIT: D. Scott MacDonald posted at the same time I did. I haven't heard of the law that Clinton signed.

 

[Erik.Ha]

Its up to them... they can keep it or they can get rid of it after a while... Most give it up as too much of a hassle/taxpayer expense after a while...

 

[CharlesD]

According to CNN.com Clinton will now have surgery early next week.

 

[LewB]

Seems that unless you have some sort of symptom or an actual heart attack, all must be good, right ?
You need to have some sort of symptoms or have something show up on a stress test before they take the next step to shoot dye into you to get the true story. That is a fairly big procedure where they cut into an artery in your leg (femoral?).
BTW, both my father and his sister had bypasses done at that same hospital. Both were in their 70's with serious 'hardening of the arteries'. Both came thru with flying colors and the operation literally saved their lives and gave them back a good quality of life. Back then they figured that the operation was good for 10 years before symptoms re-occurred. Hopefully they now have ways to extend that.

 

[Chris]

Yep, it's 10 years (non-retroactive) so it doesn't apply to Clinton, who will probably dismiss his in 2010 anyway. (However, if Hillary is a senator, it screws that up) Anyway, best of luck to him on getting well

 

[Francois Caron]

I wouldn't say he'll get "the best doctors in the world" considering the number of doctors now able to perform such a delicate operation. But he'll certainly have highly qualified doctors working on him.

But a QUADRUPLE bypass? Ouch! Talk about all clogged up! Was his love of junk food a contributing factor?

 

[Michael Harris]

I am sure that it didn't help! It was like a ticking time bomb. But his recent weight loss and fitness will definately help in his recovery. I was suprised how fit and trim he looked at the Dems convention. He definately looked "tanned, rested, and ready".

 

[Chris]

Yep. They've said as much; the moment I heard this I thought of the SNL sketch where phil hartman (playing Clinton) runs into a fast food restaurant, kisses babies and asks if they want to eat their fries

 

[Chris Lockwood]

I wonder how much genetics plays into this vs. diet and lifestyle.

He's lucky that he just had chest pains to warn him of the problem so that he could get the surgery in time... my dad dropped dead of a sudden heart attack, with no warning signs, about 5 years older than Clinton is now.

I also didn't know about the Secret Service protection only lasting 10 years- surprised that passed, considering what a symbolic target an ex-President makes for terrorists or psychos. Was Jodie Foster consulted on this?

 

[Chris]

A lot of people don't know they have a problem until too late, and men are the worst.

I spent the better part of a year dorking around with pain that I kept having.. where I didn't want it. Well, I kept going through antibiotics and just visits, until a doctor did a barium sulfate scan, something I would have never undertaken normally; we found a cyst (thankfully benign) that was removed. If it had been malignant, and I had prostate cancer for real, all my dorking around with it would have killed me

End advice: get a check up; it's good preventative medicine.

 

[Michael Harris]

Of course that was pre 9/11.