Former Polish President gets pacemaker
HOUSTON (AP) - February 29, 2008 The device was implanted during a two-hour hour procedure at
Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center. Doctors said the
64-year-old Walesa was doing well.
"We are very happy with the results," said Dr. Miguel
Valderrabano, the lead doctor on the procedure.
Walesa came to Houston for tests this week and had a stent
implanted into a clogged coronary artery Wednesday. Among his
symptoms were chest pain, fatigue and shortness of breath. He
previously had a heart attack and suffers from sleep apnea and
diabetes.
The device implanted Friday - about the size of a stopwatch - is
a biventricular pacemaker-defibrillator. The pacemaker synchronizes
the contractions of his heart, while the defibrillator will be on
standby to shock the heart if needed, hospital spokeswoman Erin
Fairchild said. Biventricular means it works on both sides of the
heart, she said.
Valderrabano characterized the procedure as routine, saying the
hospital does about five per week on average.
It is hoped that the pacemaker, along with a stent and the
treatment Walesa received for his sleep apnea and diabetes, will
prevent the need for a heart transplant, said Dr. Guillermo Torre,
his cardiologist.
Doctors should have a better idea in the next three months
whether a heart transplant will be needed.
"If his heart still shows no recovery, then transplantation
will be the best strategy," Torre said. "But usually if you
improve these things the patients typically get better."
Walesa was expected to remain hospitalized through the weekend
and possibly early next week. He will return a few days after his
release to see if the incision is healing properly, Torre said.
Walesa, a former Gdansk shipyard electrician, led a workers'
strike in 1980 that grew into the nationwide Solidarity freedom
movement against Poland's communist authorities. He won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1983. In 1989, Solidarity toppled Poland's communist
regime and Walesa went on to serve as Poland's first democratically
elected president, from 1990-95.
Before the procedure, Walesa was in good spirits and looked
forward to having it done, said Zbigniew Wojciechowski, the
anesthesiologist and translator.
"He wants to get it done because he wants to go back on his way
to doing what he has been doing: meetings, lectures and more active
work," said Wojciechowski. "He wants to get on with his normal
life."
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