Doctors Say Chretien Expected to Have Full Recovery From Heart Surgery

By Joan Bryden, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA – Jean Chretien’s passion for golf may have saved his life.

The 73-year-old former Liberal prime minister was golfing Monday at a charity event in Laval, just north of Montreal. One member of his foursome happened to be a cardiologist from the Montreal Heart Institute, Dr. Guy Pelletier.

According to friends, Chretien mentioned to Pelletier he’d recently experienced shortness of breath and periodic chest pains. Pelletier recognized the symptoms as serious and told Chretien he should check into hospital immediately and have some tests.

But Chretien was due to deliver a speech in Vancouver the next day and was preparing to launch the second volume of his memoirs on Oct. 15. He told the doctor he’d come to see him in a couple of months, after the book tour.

Although his family urged him to listen to Pelletier’s advice, Chretien went to bed that night in at an airport hotel in Montreal, determined to fly to Vancouver the next morning to keep his speech engagement.

When he woke Tuesday, however, Chretien felt ill and told his longtime executive assistant, Bruce Hartley, they had to cancel the speech and go to the hospital. After tests found serious arterial blockage, Chretien wound up Wednesday morning having emergency quadruple bypass surgery at the Montreal Heart Institute.

Dr. Michel Pellerin, who successfully performed the surgery, told a news conference late Wednesday that Chretien was in “excellent condition” after the surgery.

“He’s now recovering in the critical care unit,” said Pellerin. “He’s well and he’s recuperating very well at the moment.”

The coronary blockage was repaired before it could wreak any damage on his heart.

Chretien is expected to stay in hospital for between five and seven days.

Doctors denied Chretien received any preferential treatment because of his high profile.

People are sent to the facility all year round and are treated swiftly, they said.

“Every day of the week, every week of the month, every month of the year,” said cardiologist Jean-Claude Tardif, who assisted in the Chretien surgery.

“This hospital is open 24 hours a day,” added Tardif, mentioning the case of a 66-year-old woman who was undergoing a similar procedure as he spoke.

Chretien led the federal Liberals for 13 years, 10 of them as prime minister, before stepping down in 2003. The suddenness of his illness surprised many in official Ottawa who were accustomed to seeing him bounding up parliamentary stairs or regularly swatting a golf ball around the capital’s better golf courses.

Even on Tuesday, a social worker who ran into Chretien awaiting tests at the heart institute found him looking remarkably well.

“He looked in good shape, he looked well,” said Louise Mallette.

Stephane Dion, the current Liberal leader, issued a statement Wednesday saying he’s heartened by Chretien’s “excellent prognosis” for a full recovery.

“Throughout his decades of public service, Mr. Chretien has shown an unceasing commitment to Canada and today I join all Canadians in sending him support and encouragement.”

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was “rather surprised and alarmed” to hear that Chretien was undergoing heart surgery.

“But we understand that it’s gone well and we certainly would hope Mr. Chretien a speedy recovery,” Harper told a news conference.

As prime minister, Chretien remained lanky and fit. He always relished the fact he could bound up the stairs to his parliamentary office two at a time, leaving much younger aides struggling to keep up.

Chretien seemed determined to demonstrate his peak physical condition at every opportunity after a health scare in 1991. A nodule was removed from his lung and, although it was benign, he was frustrated that some political opponents continued to spread rumours that he was in poor health.

He joked at the time that he should go bungee jumping to silence his critics. Instead, just before the 1993 election, Chretien’s strategists arranged for a photograph to be taken of the obviously fit leader water skiing at his cottage in Quebec.

He went on to win that election resoundingly, and the next two as well. Throughout his time in office, Chretien was never afraid to show off his prowess at sports, be it skateboarding, downhill skiing, bicycling, playing hockey or basketball.

“You think of him running up the stairs and doing everything else,” said Paddy Torsney, a former Liberal MP who now advises Dion.

She said the fact that someone as fit and active as Chretien can have heart blockages should serve as a wake-up call for Canadians.

“It’s a good message that even thin, fit people can have some blockages. … It’s a great wake-up call to everybody to go and get their physicals.”

The fact Chretien has kept fit should also help speed his recovery, Torsney said.

“He’ll be up and at ‘em in no time. He’s just such a fighter. The weather’s nice, he’ll be wanting to get back out and golf.”

Herb Gray, who served as Chretien’s deputy prime minister for years, echoed that prediction.

“He’s had health scares in the past but he’s a very physically fit and active guy and I’m sure he’s kept up his physical activities,” Gray said.

“I look forward to hearing he’s back operating at full speed as he has since he left Parliament.”

Chretien, who rose to prominence as a minister in Pierre Trudeau’s government, joined the Ottawa office of law firm Heenan Blaikie after retiring from politics. Since then, he’s acted as a consultant for a number of Canadian business enterprises abroad and has travelled frequently to far-flung places like China, Russia and Africa.

Don Boudria, who served in Chretien’s cabinet and regards him “like an older brother,” said the former prime minister hasn’t slowed down one iota since leaving office.

“He’s got two speeds: Full-out and full-full-out. That’s just the way he operates.”

According to the Canadian Institutes for Health Information, there were 23,801 coronary artery bypass graft surgeries performed in Canada in 2004-05, and 23,122 in 2005-2006.

Dr. George Honos, a spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and a cardiologist at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, said bypass surgery is generally performed when one or more coronary arteries become blocked by at least 50 per cent.

Other techniques, for instance the insertion of a small metal stent to open the blood vessel, would be used if the blockages were less serious, he said.

“Generally speaking, most people – the vast majority – do very well through the bypass operation,” he said. “The vast majority are out of the hospital within a week. And the vast majority of my patients are fully recovered – meaning back to work, back to golf, back to activities – within four to eight weeks.”

He said people who come through bypass surgery and who take the prescribed medication, exercise and follow a good diet are less likely to die of heart disease than other people in their age group.