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Issue date: March 19, 2000
In this article:
 Take-home
advice from Dave's surgeon
What
you can learn from Dave's bypass
Letterman's heart
surgeon gives pointers to us all.
By Kathy Balog
  veryone
can learn important lessons from David Letterman's quintuple bypass
surgery, says a key member of the medical team that the acerbic
host of CBS' Late Show credits with saving his life.
"Smart people begin to look at their mortality between ages 35
and 50," says O. Wayne Isom, chairman of cardio-thoracic surgery
at Cornell Medical Center in New York. "That's when you say, ÔI'm
not immortal.' " Isom did Letterman's Jan. 14 bypass surgery to
clear an artery blockage so severe it's nicknamed a "widow maker."
Appearances can be deceiving. Letterman, 52, exercised regularly
(he ran six miles the day before his surgery), watched his diet
(he lost 20 pounds when he switched from NBC to CBS in 1993) and,
other than the occasional cigar, had few habits that would put him
in a high-risk category. Even his workaholic ways ("He told me he
never missed a day of work in 18 years," Isom says) weren't a problem.
"If you take a type-A personality like him, who's obsessive-compulsive
about the details, I believe cutting back would cause even more
stress."
But family history is vital. Letterman's father, a florist, died
in his 50s after suffering his first heart attack in his 30s, according
to Isom.
Doctors were able to catch Letterman's problem before he had a
heart attack by planning and administering a series of tests, including
an angiogram and a 15-minute exercise stress test on a treadmill.
(Letterman's cardiologist, Marty Post, had called Isom a week earlier
asking him to keep an operating room available the day of the tests.)
Within nine minutes, tests gave Letterman "three options: Do nothing,
wait or go to the operating room. If you wait two to three days
and have a problem, we probably can't keep you alive long enough
to get you to the operating table."
After the operation, Isom recommended that Letterman stay away
from work six weeks, three weeks longer than most bypass patients,
because of his stressful job. But Letterman returned -- three nights
a week -- after five weeks. "He never listens," Isom jokes. Now,
the doctor calls Letterman's long-term prognosis excellent.
Take-home
advice from Dave's surgeon
- Get tested. Men should get an exercise stress test at age 40;
women, at 50. As women lose estrogen, their risk of heart attack
increases. A resting EKG (electrocardiogram) indicates only whether
you are having a heart attack.
- Watch for warning signs. They include chest pain or chest pressure
after any physical exertion that goes away when you stop. Also:
pain in the arm and jaw.
- Reduce your risk. People at high risk include those at least
20 pounds overweight, non-exercisers, diabetics, those with high
cholesterol or high blood pressure, smokers and those with a family
history of heart problems. "Get on a regimen," Isom says. "Take
your jogging shoes and get on a treadmill. By the time you see
me, the horse is out of the barn."
Photo Credit: CBS
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