Clinton 'Doing Well' After Bypass

Former President Bill Clinton is on the mend after undergoing a very timely and possibly lifesaving quadruple heart bypass operation.

Mr. Clinton was taken off his respirator Monday night after a four-hour operation at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, and is breathing on his own, doctors said.

"He's doing very well," Mr. Clinton's surgeon, Dr. Craig Smith, told CBS News' "The Early Show" on Tuesday. "He's been speaking since yesterday."

His heart disease was extensive, with blockages in some arteries well over 90 percent, doctors said.

"There was a substantial likelihood that he would have had a substantial heart attack in the near future," said Dr. Allan Schwartz, Mr. Clinton's cardiologist.

But even with all the clogged arteries, surgeons were encouraged to find a strong heart muscle.

"What the surgeons have done for him is they have turned the clock back, they haven't stopped it," said cardiologist Dr. Jeffrey Gold, "and he will redevelop over again if he doesn't watch his lifestyle."

Doctors said the former president could leave the hospital in four or five days and return to full health in weeks.

"These past few days have been quite an emotional roller-coaster for us," Mr. Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said in a statement. "The president's optimism and faith will carry him through the difficult weeks and months ahead — of that we have no doubt."

Sen. Clinton thanked the hospital staff for all their efforts, as well as thousands of well-wishers for their cards, flowers and e-mails.

More than 55,000 get-well wishes have poured in for Mr. Clinton, including tens of thousands of e-mails sent to the Web site of his presidential library, including one which says: "I hope your doctors are good Democrats."

As it happens, the leader of Mr. Clinton's surgical team, Dr. Craig R. Smith, donated $2,000 to President George W. Bush's re-election campaign this year.

As for Mr. Clinton's plans to campaign for fellow Democrat John Kerry, doctors say it's not out of the question.

"We are prepared to individualize this recovery to a great extent," said Smith. "After all this is not the average person in recovery."

Schwartz said in the future, it will be possible for Mr. Clinton to lead an "extraordinarily active lifestyle."

Health experts caution, though, that Mr. Clinton will need to curb his almost legendary appetite for junk food and eventually continue his exercise regiment to keep his weight and cholesterol down.

The 58-year-old former president went to the hospital late last week after complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath, but doctors revealed Monday that he'd had these symptoms for several months. They said he had blamed them on lapses in his exercise routine and acid reflux.

It was finally discovered that the problem was his heart after one episode occurred while he was resting and lasted longer than before, they said.

The former president also had high blood pressure and may not have been adequately treated for high cholesterol. His doctors said he was put on a cholesterol-lowering drug a few days ago. Mr. Clinton was prescribed cholesterol medicine in 2001 as he was leaving office.

In bypass surgery, doctors remove one or more blood vessels from elsewhere in the body — in Mr. Clinton's case, two arteries from the chest and a vein from the leg — and attach them to arteries serving the heart, detouring blood around blockages.

During the operation, Mr. Clinton's heart was stopped and he was put on a heart-lung machine for 73 minutes. That process, used for more than 75 percent of bypass patients, carries a small risk of stroke and neurological complications.

Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood, chief cardiovascular surgeon at East Carolina University and a spokesman for the American College of Cardiology, agreed with Mr. Clinton's doctors that the president had been in a dangerous state leading up to the operation.

"Within the next couple of weeks, something was going to happen," he said.

Doctors delayed surgery until Monday because Mr. Clinton was on the blood-thinning medication Plavix, and waiting a few days decreased the chance of excessive bleeding, they said.

Mr. Clinton has blamed his heart problems in part on genetics — there is a history of heart disease in his mother's family — but also said he "may have done some damage in those years when I was too careless about what I ate."