Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

This little thing is a great example.

I never met my Paternal grandfather. He developed heart disease in his 50's and died of a heart attack (not his first) at age 60, five years before I was born.

My dad once told me that about a week after he died, Cleveland Clinic called about an appointment he had missed to do prep for open heart surgery.

Blocked arteries cause heart attacks. Before stents the only real solution was open heart surgery which involves cutting the sternum, cracking open the ribcage, and manually replacing clogged arteries with clean ones from elsewhere. The recovery from that is difficult mostly because of the cut sternum and cracked ribs.

Stents go in through a vein and it is more-or-less outpatient surgery with a minimal recovery time.

My dad got his first stents after a heart attack at age 60 and lived another 20 years before eventually dying of something else entirely.

Without this modern technology I'd have likely lost my dad almost 20 years sooner. If it had been widely available, I'd have likely had my Paternal grandfather around until I was a teenager.

Excellent point. I think my mom had to have a valve replacement and she's old and feeble enough that open heart surgery, I'm sure, would have killed her. They were able to that going in through a vein. 

I've told the story about my own cardiac arrest, which is what it is called oddly enough.  I had atrial flutter.  It was not fun.

They ran an abalation catheter up my femoral artery and "burned" three spots on the heart valve and I was cured.  The surgeon said this technique was developed around 1999.

Yep. I used to call on a company that built the ablation machines. Depending on who provided the machine, it might have had my product in it. I might have saved your life, CD! 

The funniest thing to me is that the ablation machine/catheter business model was basically the Gillette razor business model. Consumables. It doesn't matter what you sell the machine for if every use requires a new catheter and you're selling the catheters for $5K a pop, right? 

I think the Holodeck on Star Trek is amazing

and how bout those hover boards what a neat thing to have

I've told the story about my own cardiac arrest, which is what it is called oddly enough.  I had atrial flutter.  It was not fun.

They ran an abalation catheter up my femoral artery and "burned" three spots on the heart valve and I was cured.  The surgeon said this technique was developed around 1999.

We are so lucky to live in times when such things are possible. Good for you!