Clinton undergoes successful heart surgery

NEW YORK (AP) — Bill Clinton underwent a successful quadruple heart bypass operation Monday to relieve severely clogged arteries that had put the former president at high risk of suffering a heart attack.

"He is recovering normally at this point," said Dr. Craig R. Smith, the surgeon who led the operation. "Right now everything looks straightforward."

Smith said Clinton could leave the hospital in four or five days. Doctors said they expect him to make a full recovery, although the heart disease they repaired was "extensive."

The four-hour surgery came three days after Clinton checked himself into the hospital complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. Tests soon revealed that blockage in several of Clinton's arteries was "well over 90 percent," Smith said.

"There was a substantial likelihood that he would have had a substantial heart attack" in the near future, said Dr. Allan Schwartz, chief of cardiology at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.

Schwartz said Clinton was awake but sedated about four hours after the operation ended. He still was using a breathing tube and had not spoken yet, he said.

In a statement, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and the couple's daughter, Chelsea, thanked the hospital staff for helping the family through an "emotional roller-coaster."

"The president's optimism and faith will carry him through the difficult weeks and months ahead," the statement said.

In bypass surgery, doctors remove one or more blood vessels from elsewhere in the body and attach them to arteries serving the heart, detouring blood around blockages.

The vessel typically comes from elsewhere in the chest, although doctors sometimes take one from an arm, a leg or the stomach.

"There was nothing in this case that was outside the realm of routine," Smith said.

Schwartz said it would be possible for Clinton in the future to lead an "extraordinarily active lifestyle" — including hitting the campaign trail.

Doctors decided not to operate immediately on Friday because Clinton was on the blood-thinning medication Plavix, and waiting a few days decreased the chance of excessive bleeding, they said.

Clinton was described as upbeat in the days before the surgery, resting with his wife and daughter. One New York Post photo showed the former president reaching for a Boggle game near his hospital-room window.