Advice from a Bypass Buddy.

CARDIAC surgery; INDUCED cardiac arrest; CARDIAC catheterization; CLINTON, Bill, 1946-; MENTAL depression; CORONARY artery bypass; MYOCARDIAL revascularization

Presents advice from a heart-surgery veteran on how to recuperate from the procedure. Consideration of how former President Bill Clinton underwent a coronary bypass routine recently due to complications; How a patient emerges from surgery with a zipper scar down the center of the chest and a long scar along the inside of the leg; Consideration of how approximately 300,000 bypass operations are performed annually; Suggestion that a patient may feel depressed and emotionally low during the recovery from surgery; Reassurance that strength will return to the patient after time.