BBC World News reports Bernie Sanders heart surgery

From the BBC World News article:

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, 78, has been in hospital to receive two stents for an arterial blockage.

He was admitted after experiencing chest pain during a campaign event on Tuesday evening in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A statement from his senior advisor said the Sanders campaign has cancelled all upcoming "events and appearances until further notice".

Mr Sanders had earlier announced his campaign has raised over $25m (£20m).

The Vermont senator's senior adviser Jeff Weaver said in a statement on Wednesday: "Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted."

He said Mr Sanders is "conversing and in good spirits" and will be "resting up over the next few days".

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wendy davis's picture

as far as i know, the procedure IS indeed minimally invasive (if uncomfortable), quite common, and if something had gone wrong during the surgery, it already would have.

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Wally's picture

@wendy davis

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wendy davis's picture

@Wally

what i'd said? the only danger i've ever known about is that the procedure releases a blood clot that goes to one's heart, so what's with your comment to me, wally?

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Wally's picture

@wendy davis

Just riffing off your very accurate and appreciated comment. Just for clarification re. your response, though, the stent opens up the artery to increase blood flow that had been somewhat or completely clogged, usually by cholesterol deposits, according to my understanding anyway. I know more than a few folks who have had the procedure done on them and they all felt and looked much healthier afterwards and pretty much completely recovered within a few days, even when multiple stents were placed in multiple arteries.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

at the last debate.

The campaign needs to scale back the appearances and focus on the ground/online game.

Bernie needs to pace himself. It's gonna be a long year.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Wally's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

According to the Bern notice which also reports that Bernie is fine, talking and in good spirits after what is now considered a very routine procedure (roughly 1.8 million stent procedures happen in the United States every year):

An October 2018 study published in Health Affairs found that stents — which are very common — cost up to six times more in the United States than in other industrialized countries with government-sponsored health care systems. The study found that one set of stents cost $670 in the United States “but only $120 and $130 in Germany and the U.K., respectively.” Another form of stent “remained about $1,000 more expensive in the U.S. than Germany.”

Why the price differential? In part, because America’s dysfunctional health care system involves a complex web of payers — rather than a single-payer Medicare for All system that can negotiate better prices.

“Purchase prices are often the result of negotiations or tendering between manufacturers and individual hospitals, group purchasing organizations, or healthcare payers,” the study authors wrote. “It is commonly accepted that prices are confidential, which allows manufacturers to increase profits by charging different prices to different buyers, depending on their bargaining power.”

So remember the importance of Berniecare compared to the pale comparisons offered by Biden and Warren. They don't look so good.

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@Wally While the procedure for putting in a stent is very common and safe, it is surgery and needs a team of doctors and nurses with some high end equipment. Recent heard of the procedure costing $52,000.

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vtcc73's picture

@MrWebster I just learned of a fellow expat who had his second significant heart attack. I seem to remember there were four stents implanted. His total bill for the event and immediate aftercare, meds included, was $10,000. Insurance will eat almost all of it.

Where? Cuenca, Ecuador. Shit hole third world country in Trumpista speak. I think not. Not “exceptional”? Thankfully yes.

Here I sit in Quito waiting for this evening’s flight back into the asylum for 28 agonizing days. I really don’t need to be bothered by this shit.

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Wally's picture

@MrWebster
. . . not the procedure which I'm sure varies in cost all over the place.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

died afterwards from blood clots because they couldn't afford the blood thinners needed after surgery. One is Plavix. This problem pops up with people who get organ transplants because they can't afford the drugs they have to take for the rest of their lives. And this is why some people get denied. Too poor to keep themselves alive after.

This is just barbaric in the country that spends trillions on wars of choice. Let's make the corporations foot the bill instead since they get filthy rich from them.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Wally's picture

@snoopydawg

I'm no expert but I've heard that splents are stronger than the artery. They are used precisely to prevent blood clots caused by the obstruction. There are a bunch of arteries running to the heart, so my guess is that if there were post-procedure blood clots, they didn't occur in the splented artery. Bernie is already on the blood thinner medication probably similar to that which my grandfather took for about 20 years until he passed away at 96 years old. And my grandfather had previously smoked Camels. As far as I know, he just died of old age and moved on during his sleep.

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@Not Henry Kissinger ...Bernie has been campaigning non-stop and much, much harder than the rest of the candidates, who are all much younger than he. Biden's campaigning has been limited to corporate fundraisers...I guess accepting those scores of $10,000 checks is taxing on his physical well being....

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Niko House correctly reminded anyone who wants to start in on 'Bernie's health, Bernie's age,' that last time around Hillary was being propped up, nearly carried up a flight of stairs, and loaded horizontally into her modified ambulance contraption. Bernie's tough, healthy, and still has a runner's legs. As things are shaping up, he's also our only hope. And his progressive tax on CEOs who make more than x times their average employee's pay is an excellent start in the right direction.

Long live Bernie, our next president!

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Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

mimi's picture

the whole nation and there IS something serious about his chest pain and the procedure.
Can't believe how heartless your comments seem to be.

I hope he recovers. Everyone I loved or liked is dying around me these days. Damn. That's not fair.

Hold through, Mr. Sanders, we need your birdie flying. Makes me sad.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@mimi

For misunderstanding the intent of our comments, yet scolding us anyway.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

mimi's picture

@Anja Geitz
acknowledging that it was just a personal feeling I had about them as a first reaction to the news.

I didn't say they were and I was not aware that I was scolding anyone. I was simply sad about the news that explained his chest pain's reasons and consequent hospitalization.

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TPTB now have a believable story, if it looks like he's going to win the presidency.

Dammit

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Wally's picture

@gjohnsit

Nothing will stop Bernie. He's like the energizer bunny.

I can't imagine Trump not having lots of cholesterol in his arteries. And with the anxiety he's experiencing from the impeachment inquiry, he's probably chomping down Big Macs by the truckload.

This kinda thing can happen to anyone. I know a guy in his forties who had about a half dozen stents inserted in his arteries a couple of years ago. He's much more peppy than he used to be and looks much healthier with the increased bloodflow and still plays various indoor and outdoor sports.

I know a woman in her 50s who has been running marathons for years and out of nowhere, she had a stroke. Thankfully, she has pretty much completely recovered.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@Wally

need to be in great shape, if it's a contest between them and DT. (Being obnoxious, doesn't necessarily equate with being unhealthy. Biggrin )

Googled--(if true) DT hasn't had surgery since age 11--appendix removed.

Meds he regularly takes:

1 10 Mg Crestor (minimum does available) - for high cholesterol

1 low-dose Baby Aspirin - common, for prevention of heart ailment

And, 2 'cosmetic'-related meds - Propecia to prevent baldness; one med for skin condition Rocecea (facial redness, etc.)

Occasionally, he takes an Ambien when flying (sleeping pill, I think).

Clearly, unless something else turns up in next few months, he appears to be in relatively decent health, especially, for his age.

IMO, 'if' Warren's health is as good as DT's (he is 73, and she's 70) - she may have another advantage over her two main Dem competitors--that us, with folks who are reluctant to vote for older candidates because of health concerns.

Saw the other day, it's generally older folks who place the most emphasis on age, and possible health concerns of candidates (in most polls).

Ugh! Knew DT's birthday is same as my Mom's. Just saw another coincidence--his Father and Mother were both born same years as my parents. Sheesh! (How did I get so lucky? /s )

Bad

Hope Bernie has a speedy recovery. Give rose IMO, he should probably slow down a tad, though, even when he is fully recovered. After all, DT is the type to use anything and everything, against his competitors. (Remember how much mileage he got out of FSC's knees buckling at the NYC event.)

Have a good one.

Mollie

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@gjohnsit

if/when they don't have believable stories.

I never found the Paul Wellstone story particularly believable. Actually, I've never found the JFK story particularly believable.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Centaurea's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal @Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

of what the corporate media says to be believable. They are not credible sources. They are propagandists. I always assume that everything they say is done for that purpose.

Many Americans are addicted to the media and fall for the propaganda. As you note, it doesn't matter how ostensibly "believable" it is.

People who have lost their critical thinking ability, and whose minds have been captured through traumatization, will believe anything.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

snoopydawg's picture

@Centaurea

captured? Was it Herheinous losing the easiest election in history to Trump or something else? If it's Hillary's loss that got people to lose their critical thinking skills and buy into Russia Gate then that explains why so many non Hillary supporters never did. This seems to be the breakdown on who buys it and those who saw through it from the beginning. Now those same people can't open their minds up to the possibility that the FBI , CIA and Mueller are not their friends.

You'd think that moving towards peace in Ukraine would be great news for people who were once anti war. But sadly you'd be wrong.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Centaurea's picture

@snoopydawg

of the American people has gone on for a long time, in my opinion. Maybe since the beginning. The more genealogical research I do into my family tree, the more I can see that the pathology of the American psyche has deep roots.

In the history of the US, terrible things have been done to us, and we have done terrible things.

More recently, we can look at the continual brainwashing via the news and entertainment media that has been done to the American public for the past 100 years. Brainwashing, also known as m!ndf&cking, is extremely traumatizing.

Of course, there are specific events such as the American Civil War; the US's destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki using atomic bombs; and the assassinations of JFK, MLK and RFK.

At present, we live in a 24/7 surveillance state, in which we cannot trust anyone, including each other, our governmental leaders, or the "news" media. We are being used as fodder to be devoured by the oligarchy. All while being told (gaslighted) that this is normal and anyone who says it isn't is crazy and a traitor.

That kind of environment is very destructive of mental health.

The American psyche is messed up seven ways to Sunday. The US is a psychologically dysfunctional system. It's a wonder we're still functioning at all.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

His time was 2016.
We are fucked.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Wally's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

He had less of a chance in 2016. More supporters, more money this time around. And more half-assed opponents to level the playing field. 2020 or bust.

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@Wally
I fear Bernie will not last four years even if he can take the heat of a long campaign. He's five years older than me and I couldn't.
And I don't have a bad heart. (I do have bad lungs, courtesy of the American Tobacco Company)

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Wally's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

You might want to check this out about smoking and heart disease:

https://www.cardiosmart.org/Healthy-Living/Stop-Smoking/Smoking-and-Hear...

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karl pearson's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness No, 2016 was not Bernie's time because it was HER time and she blew it. LOL

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@karl pearson

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.