Former US President George Bush undergoes heart surgery
FORMER US President George W Bush has undergone heart surgery after doctors found a blockage in an artery.
Mr Bush, 67, had a stent successfully fitted yesterday to prop open his arteries after the problem was detected during his annual physical exam.
The former president, who left office in 2009 and has no previous history of heart trouble, is expected to be discharged from hospital today.
A spokesman for Mr Bush said he was “in high spirits” and eager to return to his home in Dallas, Texas, with plans to resume his normal schedule by tomorrow.
A stent is a mesh scaffolding that keeps open arteries that have typically clogged after years of cholesterol build-up.
Doctors usually guide a tube through a blood vessel near the groin up to the heart, inflate a tiny balloon to flatten the blockage and insert the stent.