NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was recovering on Monday after successful quadruple heart bypass surgery at a New York hospital, and his doctors said he would have risked a "substantial" heart attack without the operation.
Some of Clinton's arteries had been 90-percent blocked and he would likely have had a "substantial heart attack" in the near future without an operation, Chief of Cardiology Allan Schwartz of New York-Presbyterian Hospital told a news conference.
Dr. Craig Smith, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the hospital, who led the procedure, said it had been "relatively routine."
"Starting this morning at about 8 a.m., he had a relatively routine quadruple bypass operation. We left the operating room around noon and he is recovering normally at this point," Smith said.
