life or death

the barbara walters special, a matter of life and death, focuses on the dichotomy of our hearts, it's strength and fragility.  she shares statistics: our hearts beat 100,000 times, pumping 2,000 gallons of blood, filled with oxygen, through our bodies.  in an average lifetime, this amazing muscle will beat more than 2.5 billion times.  and then she highlights the scary truth that heart disease is america's number one killer.  specifically, she shared her own story and interviewed former president bill clinton, david letterman, robin williams, regis philbin and charlie rose, who have all had major heart surgery to save their lives.


i learned more about how heart surgery works and the impressive operating room technology.  a surgeon stops your heart and uses a machine to oxygenate and pump blood throughout your body while he operates on the cardiac muscle.  it was fascinating to hear personal stories about different signs, symptoms, and recoveries.  but i was disappointed that the focus was on the technology available to "right our wrongs" and only the last few minutes of the special focused on prevention.  in our society, most people are not willing to do the work to stay healthy by eating right and exercising and this special perpetuated (and darn near encouraged) that habit.  it encourages me to be thankful for the work that local health practitioners are doing to help educate the public about maintaining heart health.