The San Francisco Giants announced Thursday evening that Bruce Bochy underwent a medical procedure. Here’s their statement:
Following his physical yesterday, the Giants medical staff was monitoring Bruce Bochy’s heart after he experienced some discomfort.
This afternoon, Bruce was admitted to Scottsdale Healthcare Medical Center where doctors performed a medical procedure to insert two stents.
He is resting comfortably and will be released tomorrow. Any media inquiries should be directed to the Giants media relations staff.
To take a look at exactly what this might mean, I called my dad.
Dr. Ron Berman has practiced anesthesiology in Eureka and Arcata for over 35 years. He actually called me this morning with the news that he was retiring from the world of medicine, and 12 hours later I’m calling him back to ask medical questions (usually we talk about what the Giants are doing on the field).
Here’s how he described Bochy’s procedure:
“Anyone who gets a coronary artery stent means that they have coronary artery disease and they’re probably having angina symptoms, heart symptoms. A stent is what they call ‘non-invasive procedure,’ in that it doesn’t require an incision and opening up the heart,” he said.
The stent is required to “restore blood to a particular part of the heart that’s not getting enough blood, usually because the coronary artery is mostly blocked.”
Here’s how it’s done:
“In the groin, the femoral artery, there’s a catheter inserted. Under radiological control, (the catheter) is snaked all the way back into the heart, into the coronary arteries, to the coronary artery that is diseased. Then a small tube, usually a metal tube which is impregnated with an anti-coagulant, is placed in that particular artery to restore blood to the part of the heart that’s been starved for blood and therefore oxygen.”
That’s the heavy-duty medical explanation. I asked him what it means for Bochy’s long-term health and whether it would affect his ability to manage the Giants.
“If he has an isolated one artery that is diseased, then this will not affect him in any way. If it’s widespread disease, then he is highly vulnerable to another bad situation,” the doctor said.
“He will be asked to take it easy and not be stressed, and be on his best behavior for a few weeks. But after that, he should be able to resume his normal activities. Hopefully this is just one artery that needed some help and he’ll just go on and be fine after this.”
I’ll second that. Here’s to hoping it’s just one problematic artery, and Bochy will get well soon.
