Cypher® Stent Patient Stories

Five different heart stent patients, five different stories, one ending: a second chance at a healthier heart and life after coronary heart disease.
View other stories below.
For a while it looked like I wasn’t going to have that retirement. Now I feel like I got a second chance at life.

GILBERT - Plumber:
My name is Gilbert and I’m 52 years old, I’m a plumber.
SUPER: GILBERT plumber
I do a lot of fishing. Just relaxing to me, whether you catch fish or you don't catch fish, you know, you're out there, you're relaxing and enjoying the view. I think I just started getting carried away with my diet and pretty much everything, drinking, eating wrong, and putting on weight. After a while, it just got to where I couldn't do anything. Get home, sit down on the couch, and just lay there on the couch. I wasn't doing too much of anything. I, even the fishing stopped. One day I went to work and I was up in the ceiling, getting real, you know, bad chest pains, they did an angiogram and found out that I had a blockage. The procedure? It was very quick. I think the next day they let me go home. It takes a heart attack to get serious about your diet, you know. I’ve changed all my lifestyle, so I lost quite a bit of weight. And I think a lot of that now, just moving all the time. My wife had a hard time chasing after me and going to the stores and-- but I was kind of like showing off, because I just felt so much better, and I was like running on purpose, and she chases after me. Whenever people tell me, "Oh, you look good, and all" I ask, "What'd I look like before?" Spend a lot of time playing with my grandkids. Them jumping on me, or standing on our heads and Looking forward to retiring. And going out and actually moving up to Tennessee, Smokey Mountains, that's-- Me and my wife talk about that all the time. For a while there it looked like I wasn't going to have that retirement. You know, it's just one day I was going to be working and that was it. Now, yeah, maybe I got a second chance at life, that’s the way I look at it.

Jesse - Registered Nurse I got to live again. I got to go surfing again. I can be with my family. Let's go!	Byron - Doctor Less than 24 hours after the procedure, I was back to myself. It was nothing short of miraculous for me.	Bob - Painter I have paintings in me that I haven't painted yet.

Tim - Venture Capitalist I had 95% blockage in my LAD artery, nicknamed "the widow maker". Six weeks later, I won my age group in a 1-mile swim.	Gilbert - Plumber For a while it looked like I wasn't going to have that retirement. Now I feel like I got a second chance at life.