He should not have died!

[jpertello]

In this time of medical knowledge available to one and all, Tim Russert should not have died the way he did! . We all know about atherosclerosis and I am sure Tim knew about it too. Why his doctors chose not to do more extensive testing is beyond me. I have had many heart tests, some of them painful and friggin invasive, and a few heart operations. Believe me they were not fun but it was to save my life. Why didn't Tim Russert's doctors act more aggressively to diagnose him? An enlarged heart, coronary artery disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and they did NOTHING beyond treating it with diet, some statins, beta blockers and exercise? So he performed well on the stress test. So what? Everything else points to heart disease! Fat guy approaching 60 with a high stress job, high triglycerides and probably other blood indicators of heart disease. Did his doctors do a recent CT scan? An echo? arteriogram? I am assuming no, because if they had he'd be in a hospital right now and not being memorialized on TV. Why the hell not? He probably would be alive now if they had done the proper round of tests and a bypass about a year ago.

Below is further information on exactly what killed this man. Regardless of what you think of him as a journalist, I'm sure you'll agree that he died way too young. My own Dad died at 57. Also a hard working guy who didn't take his own symptoms seriously enough.

So, to all you hard working tough guys out there, don't be so tough. Go to a doctor. Get diagnosed. Get the tests you need, no matter how uncomfortable and annoying they are, or how much they disrupt your busy schedule. This is your life we're talking about. Everything else will wait. And your children will thank you.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/111396.php
http://www.lowcarbnewsline.com/article.asp?colid=8536

[Avalon6]

1. Procrastination

It's so powerful we even do it with our health.

[newmajority]

2. Perhaps his doctors did mention surgical options

and maybe Tim decided against it, because he didn't want to spend weeks or even months away from the job. Maybe he truly didn't realize, or even his doctors didn't realize the seriousness of the problem. Unfortunately, he ended up taking a permanent vacation.

Or, if a blood clot brought on by a long plane ride home from Italy contributed to his death, maybe there was nothing that his doctors could have seen to predict that?

I would think that a guy making the kind of money that Russert certainly was, would have had access to the best health care available. A sad fact that you have to be in that tax bracket to be able to say that in this country.

[MannyGoldstein]

3. I Don't Think The Answer's So Clear

See http://www.theheart.org/viewArticle.do?primaryKey=876283&nl_id=tho18jun08 for example.

He apparently died from ruptured plaque. I'm not sure what anyone can do to predict or prevent that.

CABG (bypass) only has a very small effect on life expectancy. Angioplasty has no effect on life expectancy.

[Bobbieo]

5. Guess chelation doesn't work!!!

[shireen]

4. 2nd article, very informative

i have most of the danger signs plus some, this is pretty scary.

[pansypoo53219]

6. but he HAD just passed a stress test

a few weeks before. heck, that jogger dude dropped dead. we ALL are gonna die. the dr on TOTN said his disease was hidden. shit happens.

[AccessGranted]

7. At 46 I Just Went On Lopressor As A Preventative Treatment

Went for a physical as I was concerned that both of my parents died early of heart-related illness and had extreme high blood pressure at my age. Figure I might have gotten some bad genetic code in there somewhere, so I followed up. I totally failed the stress test (twice) and had to have a cardiac catheterization, which sucked. EKG was okay. They didn't see anything. Blood pressure was slightly elevated on a fairly regular basis and on exertion, it skyrockets. Docs put me on lopressor as a precaution. Rather take a few little pills every day than bugger off early.