Word: rasmussen
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...Staff writer William M. Rasmussen can be reached at wrasmuss@fas.harvard.edu...
...Staff writer William M. Rasmussen can be reached at wrasmuss@fas.harvard.edu...
...years David Rasmussen, 72, a retired airline dispatcher living in Clarksville, Va., had solved at least one crossword puzzle a day. But for a while after he underwent double-bypass surgery at Duke University Medical Center last October, Rasmussen hardly glanced at his beloved crosswords. "I found it hard to concentrate," Rasmussen recalls. "All I wanted to do was sit around and watch television...
...could hardly blame him. After all, Rasmussen had had his chest cracked open, his heart stitched up and was swimming in painkillers. Is it any wonder that he--and 30% to 80% of the more than 500,000 Americans who undergo bypass each year--would experience bouts of mental fogginess after surgery? Most surgeons assumed these effects were temporary, since they usually disappeared a few weeks or months after the operation--as they did in Rasmussen's case. Besides, doctors tended to focus on the more pressing bypass complications--stroke, for example, which occurs in 1% to 5% of cases...
...certainly does to David Rasmussen. Four months after his operation, he's glad to be alive and happy to feel as sharp as he does. "I'm back to working the New York Times crossword," he says. "I think I got the better part of the bargain...