Heart surgery is just the start (USA)

" Think of the worst traffic jam imaginable, Southern California bad. Imagine congestion choking off movement to all but a trickle, idling automobiles and causing noxious exhaust to build up until only gridlock remains. That was the shape of Robert Elam's heart back in December 2004. Three arteries were completely blocked and two were 90 percent clogged. Blood was still pumping, all right, but the backup was so pronounced that it seeped rather than flowed through his system. Quintuple coronary artery bypass surgery saved Elam's life. But had the 60-year-old Sacramento man not made the conscious, postoperative decision to dedicate himself to a cardiac rehabilitation program, it's doubtful he'd be hale and hearty enough to jump on his road bike and join his wife, Sue, next month on the four-day, 330-mile NorCal AIDS Challenge" - Sacramento Bee