Mukherjee took over some PM’s functions when Manmohan underwent surgery

Numerous world rulers have been treated for cardiac problems

LAHORE: In relatively modern history, numerous world rulers like India’s Manmohan Singh and Latvia's President Raimonds Vejonis had undergone heart surgeries while they were calling shots in office.

Latvian President Vejonis' operation was successfully performed on January 20, 2016 at a hospital in the country’s capital, Riga, as a team of surgeons had eliminated a source of an infection from the 49-year-old head of state’s heart, and had replaced an infected valve with an artificial one.

Similarly, the then sitting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was treated on January 25, 2009.

When the then 76-year old Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was undergoing a successful coronary artery bypass surgery, the then Indian External Minister Pranab Mukherjee (country’s sitting President now) was given the charge of the Finance Ministry after he had held meetings with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Mukherjee, 73 at that time, had also taken charge over some prime ministerial responsibilities, while Manmohan Singh recovered.

However, no Acting Indian Prime Minister was named while Premier Singh was recuperating. Mukherjee was entrusted with the task to also preside over Cabinet meetings and had handled the portfolios of numerous ministries such as finance, coal, environment and forests, information and broadcasting.

Manmohan Singh’s doctors at New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences were quoted by local media outlets as saying: “We started the operation at 7:45 am. The second operation always takes longer and makes it difficult to reach the heart. We did a total of five by-passes to clear multiple blockages in his arteries. Surgery was the long term answer since there were many blockages. We will take the PM out of the breathing machine in the next 2-3 hours and the PM should stay for three days in the ICU and then 4-5 days more in the hospital.”  The Indian Premier’s doctors had further stated: “The team of surgeons made a 6 to 7 inch incision along the scar that marked the PM's 1990 bypass operation, and he was given five grafts. The new grafts, all three mm long, will last the PM the rest of his life.”

It is imperative to note that in 2010, doctors for then-48-year-old sitting US President Barack Obama had ordered a heart CT scan to look for mild blockages, even though their patient also had no symptoms.

This had occurred at the height of the debate over the Affordable Care Act, which was intended to improve health care affordability in the United States.

Various American media houses had pointed out that Obama’s pointless test was in direct violation of the President’s own US Preventive Health Services Task Force guidelines and American Heart Association’s recommendations though.

By the way, hearts of former American Presidents Messrs Bill Clinton and George W. Bush Junior were also operated, though they were out of office at those times.

On February 11, 2010, former US President Bill Clinton was again taken to a New York hospital after experiencing chest pains, and had to undergo a heart procedure, his office said.

The New York Times had reported: “Doctors inserted two stents into his native coronary artery after one of the bypass grafts from an operation five years ago became obstructed. Mr. Clinton, 63, has a history of heart trouble. He had quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery in 2004 and later developed rare complications affecting his lungs that required another operation six months later. He was taken to the Columbia campus of New York Presbyterian Hospital, the same facility where he was treated six years ago.”

A different heart care problem had affected Bill Clinton in September 2004, when he had symptoms of an impending heart attack. He was transferred to the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City for an urgent cardiac bypass surgery.

While campaigning for Presidential candidate John Kerry, Clinton had an episode of angina. Evaluation revealed he had not suffered a coronary infraction. Clinton was sent home.

He had returned the following day for angiography, which disclosed multiple vessel coronary artery disease.

The medical team stated, had he not had surgery, he would have likely suffered a massive heart attack within a few months.

As a complication of his heart surgery, Clinton underwent a follow-up surgery on March 10, 2005. Doctors had to remove a scar tissue and fluid from his left chest cavity.

In one of its August 28, 2013 articles, the “Slate” magazine, an English-language online current affairs, politics and culture magazine in the United States, had stated that former US President George W. Bush had turned up to the hospital for a checkup in early August.

The magazine continued: “Bush took several medical tests, including a treadmill exercise stress test that showed a problem. He immediately had a chest CT scan that confirmed a coronary blockage, and the following day, doctors implanted a stent to prop open the President’s narrowed artery.”

On January 1, 2016, as the Newsweek magazine had reported, former Israeli President Shimon Peres was rushed to hospital for emergency heart surgery after he had experienced chest pains.

The Newsweek magazine had held: “The 92-year-old was taken to the Sheba Medical Center, east of Tel Aviv, where he underwent a successful heart catheterisation procedure after he was diagnosed with a narrowed artery, He is now conscious and being medically tested following the surgery.”