Six weeks ago today was a big day for me. I’d had a little tightness in the chest, a little trip to the doctor. And six weeks ago they threw me on a hospital gurney, slapped on the oxygen mask, and cut my chest open for heart bypass surgery.

I was lucky. No heart attack. No big damage. And they say I should be good for decades.

But coronary heart disease is still the leading cause of death in America.

Today we’re going to talk it out with the medical team that saved my life.

This hour On Point: heart surgery, heart health, and the team that brought me through.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Nahum Vishniavsky, primary care physician at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Wellesley.

Rodney Falk, cardiologist with Harvard-Vanguard who also teaches at Harvard Medical School and Boston University.

Prem Shekar, cardiac surgeon at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Michelle del Prete, cardiac nurse at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.