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.
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.

TIM - Venture Capitalist:

I consider myself in terms of lifestyle to be a very active person. I do a series of ocean swimming races of one to three miles in length during the summer have done that for the 30 years that I've been here in California. I think these coronary problems can hit anybody almost regardless of lifestyle.
SUPER:TIM venture capitalist
Well I had been on a business trip in Europe for two weeks. I came back the next morning, went down to the beach in California, took a walk. And after six minutes I just said I'm completely out of breath; I can't do this. I wasn't having any pain but I just was short of breath. And what I really had noticed is that the bottom of my feet felt numb. They put me on the treadmill and I went six minutes and they went whoops. They rolled me over onto the gurney and said I think we're going to take you over into the cath lab. They said I had a 95% blockage in my lower interior descending artery, nicknamed the widow maker. I would recommend the stent procedure definitely. Five hours after I arrived to the doctor’s office I was sitting up in bed talking to people and I was just fine. I won my age group in the Coronado One Mile Rough Water Swim six weeks after my procedure. When you sort of have a near miss like this and I suffered no damage, you kind of go man I was lucky. I could have been gone but now that I'm here I'm going to have that goal. My goal is to swim the La Jolla Rough Water the year I'm 87.