The New York heart surgeon who will perform bypass surgery on former President Bill Clinton is widely regarded as one of the best in the nation.
Craig Smith, a 55-year-old former fullback for the Williams College football team, heads the Columbia medical center's division of cardiothoracic surgery, the New York Daily News reported Monday.
The Case Western Reserve University Medical School grad is a veteran of heart-bypass and transplant surgeries and a pioneer in using tiny robots to perform heart surgery without opening patients' chests.
Smith's patients say the 42nd president's heart could not be in better hands.
"I'm still alive 13 years later because Craig Smith saved my life," said Gerald Turer, 76, of Airmont, Rockland County, who had an emergency triple bypass in 1992.
"Bill Clinton is very lucky to have him as his doctor."
Smith reportedly will perform quadruple-bypass surgery, perhaps Monday, on Clinton, who checked into the hospital Friday with chest pains and shortness of breath.
Clinton's bypass surgery is expected to be routine. Smith likely will snip small blood vessels from the former President's leg, then use them to redirect blood around clogged arteries on his heart muscle.
© Copyright 2004 by United Press International
