@commoner...
I totally agree with what you've written. We cannot totally write off stents and open heart surgery and other forms of interventional surgery for heart attacks.
It's very dangerous to advocate " No Stents" in this forum. The decision to " Stent" or not has to be made by the cardiologist/heart surgeon and the patient himself.
Emergency stenting and even open heart surgery is now the trend before more damage to the heart muscle occurs. But again, there are advocates for conservative treatment and NO surgical intervention. The Pros and Cons have been debating for a long long time.
IMHO, it is dangerous to openly declare that Stenting and Open Heart Surgery are dangerous and should be avoided at all cost. It all depends on the condition of the patient and also on the amount of damage to the heart muscles plus other co-morbidities and risk factors. It's not an easy decision which involves life and death.
I have friends who have a heart attack and they have gone through different modalities of treatment after an extensive investigation and discussion.
1. Some on conservative treatment.Treat the hypertension, the high cholesterol and diabetes - all the co-morbidites and plus aspirin to thin the blood etc etc ..
2. Somw have stents done - from one to 6 stents plus all the medications...
3. Open Heart Surgery /Bypass surgery - plus all the supportive medications..
So far many have survived their heart attacks and they are doing well....with the supportive medications and the change in life-style which is strongly advocated by all our forummers here...
But of course there are a few who died suddenly from a massive heart attack - some of them are apparently very well, very healthy, very conscious of their life-style and diet. But the heart attack killed them instantly.
My humble suggestion is to treat all the different modalities of treatment and prevention with great caution and let your cardiologist be the co-manager of your " heart condition". It's dangerous to do this alone. One wrong step and we are into our last moment. So do be very careful....
