Interventions

The medical literature and my own experience support this course of action if a procedure becomes necessary for the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD):

What Is Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI)?

PCI is a medical procedure in which a balloon is used to open a blockage in a coronary artery narrowed by atherosclerosis. This procedure improves blood flow to the heart.

Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is used to improve blood flow to the heart in people with severe coronary artery disease (CAD).

Catheter Ablation is a procedure that corrects irregular heartbeats by destroying small amounts of tissue that cause the abnormal heart rhythm. During this procedure, a catheter is threaded into the heart. The tip of the catheter is guided to the area of heart tissue that is causing the abnormal heart rhythm. The catheter emits a pulse of painless radiofrequency energy that destroys the abnormal tissue and corrects the irregular heartbeat.

During my career there has been many an occasion where I participated in the cardiac arrest and resuscitation of a patient, often having to apply the “paddles” as part of a team effort to shock a fibrillating (quivering) heart back to a more normal rhythm. Even in a hospital setting this effort often didn’t work.