on the left side. sounds like those are all good. like dr. schwartz said, that s your life insurance. if that stays open you re going to be okay. larry: so some actually this extends life. yes, it does. i ve got some people who have walter dickinson in california, his left internal mammary has been open for 33, 34 years. he skis at high levels and larry: the only thing i noticed different was i have no discomfort. i feel fine. the other grafts are open. they re profuse. your heart is getting plenty of blood supply. larry: a person watching, to not be too technical, a graft is what? graft is like putting a side road along the long island expressway. you go around that exit. larry: once you click on which is the graft. you hook it up.
promptly to warning symptoms that had been discussed with him on numerous occasions in the past. we ll take a couple more. [ inaudible question ] again, the mammary without getting too technical, the grafts are of different kinds. this so the graft to the main blood vessel on the front of the heart is what s called a left internal mammary ar tear yo graph is not prone to this type of blockage. one at a time, please. reporter: he had chest pain for a couple of days? i didn t say he chest pains. he had vague chest discomfort when it became repetitive he realized that might be a he problem with his heart. he consulted me and we acted. reporter: were there ever
what, dr. isom, is his prognosis would you say? short term, long term? i think his prognosis is great, especially the fact those other vessels, those other grafts are open. as i said that s your million-dollar life insurance. if those will stay open, in fact, internal mammary will keep you alive forever. larry: other quick things for the panel. sanjay, what part in this does stress play? reporter: i don t think it plays a big part in this particular situation. obviously stress is associated with lots of different diseases. i think it s pretty clear. people are saying maybe this was related to his trip he took to haiti and was that too stressful for him? in this particular case it sounds pretty clear this was a natural progression of something that had happened back in his operation in 2004. that was sort of the wake-up call for him, as dr. schwartz pointed out. now 2010, 6 years later he had some gradual closing off of one
went through the double doors and he was still on a conference call on haiti. doug said, mr. president, i m taking that phone away from you. right up to the time he went into the surgery, he was dealing with haiti. he ll take a day or two off. if anybody thinks this will change his lifestyle, you don t know bill clinton. he gets out of bed every day to figure out how to help people. he s in great spirits and he will be back to his old self in a couple days and just like before he went in? larry: we ll try and contact him tomorrow and try to get him to be here tomorrow night. we ll devote the whole show to the heart tomorrow night. what s his prognosis, would you say? short term and long term? i think his prognosis is great, especially the fact that those other vessels, those other grafts are open, that s your million dollar life insurance. if those will stay open, in fact, internal mammary to the left interior will keep you
like that s relatively new. looks like those are going to stay for longer. it s like a japanese finger trap. you turn your hand this way and it opens up. larry: the president, what artery did he from talking from listening to dr. schwartz, and i don t know, but it sounds like the vein graft the right coronary artery had closed off. larry: that wasn t mine? that wasn t yours. then what they did is his own vessel that had a blockage in it, they opened that up with the stent. you might ask the question, okay, well why didn t you do that the first time? there will probably be cardiologists who will say, if i d done that he wouldn t have ever had the surgery. the big reason that they did it, and craig smith is a great surgeon who did it and really smart and technically adept. what he did was he took the left internal mammary and with another vessel, right internal mammary bypassed three vessels