Heart surgery

Bill Paxton died today, 61 years of age. The article said that he died from complications of heart surgery, he died from a stoke. I don't know what his surgery was for. Is it possible and how prevalent is it when one goes for an Ablation that a stroke could occur? I know anything can happen but how often would that occur?

Liz

Hi Liz,

It is a real shame to read of Bill Paxton's death, apparently from either an on-table stroke or shortly after during post-op recovery for whatever surgery he had. In either scenario the odds are very remote, indeed, that it would have been from a AFIB ablation, but not impossible of course. Modern endocardial AFIB catheter ablation leading directly to a within-procedure fatal stroke is highly unusual. At least that is the case by first assuming that Mr Paxton even had AFIB and thus might have been having an ablation at the time of his death ... which is highly speculative on our part to begin with based on what has been released so far ... but even assuming it was an ablation and assuming again that he was under the care of an experienced ablationist, which one would hope a well-to-do actor of his stature and connections would have been referred to an experinced EP, then no, it would not be the kind of tragic outcome anyone could expect or be overly concerned about going into an ablation procedure.

For all we know, he had a dissected aortic aneurysm, or a tear occurred during valve replacement surgery ... the stroke could have happened during a CABG surgery on heart lung bypass too. These kind of major procedures would tend to bring a bigger risk for peri-procedural stroke that could be fatal right then and there, but even in these more invasive surgerical procedures a fatal stroke has got to be low on the list of outcome risks going into any of them.

Best we just wait until more details come out about Bill Paxton's condition and nature of his surgery. It is true, though, that not even minimally-invasive cardiac procedures are risk free and all carry at least a small and remote, but never zero, risk for serious complications and even death.

Just one more reason to always stack the odds as much as possible in one's favor by being highly discriminating in choosing the most experienced operator with the widest and longest history of outstanding outcomes long term for the given type of surgery any of us might need. And even more so when the procedure has to do with an especially critical organ like the heart!

It's sad to hear of Mr Paxton's far too young demise, and I've always enjoyed watching him perform throughout his very successful acting career. RIP ...

Shannon



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2017 11:17AM by Shannon.

Shannon:

You are right on:\

Bill Paxton‘s death certificate has been released.

The actor’s cause of death was a stroke following heart surgery, according to his death certificate, obtained by TMZ.

Paxton underwent surgery to replace a heart valve and correct an aortic aneurysm when complications arose.

According to the death certificate, Paxton had surgery on Feb. 14 and died 11 days later on the 25th after suffering a stroke. He was 61.

Thanks for the update Liz!! Again sorry to hear about Bill Paxton and by all reports he was a genuinely kind and caring man.

Shannon