V — Kudos, you made it through a heart attack

V., a true hero, had a heart attack last Thursday. He bravely bore up through this, as he does through virtually everything.




Heart attack
n.
Sudden interruption or insufficiency of the supply of blood to the heart, typically resulting from occlusion or obstruction of a coronary artery and often characterized by severe chest pain. Also called myocardial infarction.

The diagram below, from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, shows what occurs in an infarction.

Figure A is an overview of a heart and coronary artery showing damage (dead heart muscle) caused by a heart attack. Figure B is a cross-section of the coronary artery with plaque buildup and a blood clot.

V. was treated in New York. After a catheritization, he was fixed with two stents in a procedure that can be seen in a media presentation by clicking on this link. The figure below also shows a stent and its placement in a coronary artery.

The illustration shows the placement of a stent in a coronary artery with plaque buildup. Figure A shows the deflated balloon catheter and closed stent inserted into the narrowed coronary artery. The inset image on figure A shows a cross-section of the artery with the inserted balloon catheter and closed stent. In figure B, the balloon is inflated, expanding the stent and compressing the plaque to restore the size of the artery. Figure C shows the stent-widened artery. The inset image on figure C shows a cross-section of the compressed plaque and stent-widened artery.


V. will be at home, recovering, over the next weeks and months. My hope is that from now on, he will play dominoes and swim, which is what he deserves. My other hope is that I will be of some help to him.