Can alternative medicine avoid Heart Bypass Surgery?

I was with my mom in the temple on her 70th birthday. We were in the process of our Pradakshina [why], which is when I think my mom got her mild attack. After watching too many Indian movies we assume a person at the time of heart attack will be sweating like crazy, they will feel dizzy etc etc, nothing like that ever happens to my mom. That is one reason her heart has been damaged – she has had a series of minor attacks and none of us knew about it

She got the worst birthday gift from us – an angiography.  The results as expected was bad news to us, she needed a bypass ‘immediately’. We scheduled the operation but before the scheduled date she had a massive attack. In Jan 2009 I wrote about India’s 911 service.

My father was always against the bypass [Reuters],

• 52 per cent more likely to die within three years
• It damages the veins and leads to heart attacks
• The study of 3,000 patients found veins removed by the endoscopic technique were significantly more likely to become clogged within a year or so
• At the 12- to 18-month mark, 47 per cent of the patients had at least one of their bypass grafts fail, versus 38 per cent for whom the blood vessels were removed by the older method
• Three years after the heart surgery, the risk of death or a non-fatal heart attack was 38 per cent higher among the patients whose leg vein was removed endoscopically.
• When the pros and cons are explained, most still choose the endoscopic technique, worrying less about the long-term risks than the short-term benefits.

My father attends all senior citizen meets with great enthusiasm. In spite of being above 80, he is as curious and hungry to learn more like a youngster. He has been reading a lot about alternate therapy for my mom’s heart condition. Unfortunately none of the family members supported him and we went ahead with the bypass.

Bypass success rate – 98%

Unfortunately her bypass did not go well. She had some minor problems after 2 months after her bypass, way too early to fall sick after the bypass.  We went back to the same hospital. The doctors advised her to again undergo another operation and gave no guarantees whatsoever regarding the success rate.

The success rate of the bypass was supposed to be 98%. Failures happen, unfortunately we happened to be in the 2%. None of us were angry or shouted at any of the doctors, we took it in the right spirit and decided to move on.

This time the family decided to simply obey my father!

Natural Bypass / Biochemical Angioplasty

My father learnt about a therapy being offered by Saaol.  He immediately enrolled her for,

• Natural Bypass – The basic idea here is use the branches of arteries [Capillaries] to supply blood to the heart. The machine artificially increases the flow of blood in the coronary channels by directly increasing the presure at the root of the coronary arteries.  About 200 centers in US, 10,000 centers in China use this machine.
• Biochemical Angioplasty – The patient is injected with chemicals that clear the blocked arteries. (I must admit we were a little concerned about this therapy as a foreign object was being injected, but I guess we did not have a choice)

My mother is nearing the completion of this therapy. It appears it has helped her. Now and then she has little problems but we have learnt to accept it.

It should be noted that I have expressed my personal experience about this alternate therapy. Using it or not is your decision.