Here's another case study from the archive vault at the hospital I worked at for so many years. Again, I want to stress these are typical for people who smoke for several years. I saw thousands of patients just like this one.
We had a 62 year-old male present with coronary artery disease. He had just returned from the OR where he had coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) X 4 arteries. We weaned him off the ventilator within a few hours of arriving to the ICU. He had no family history of heart disease, led an active lifestyle but became fatigued with exertion in the last couple of years, and smoked about a pack of cigarettes per day for 40 years.
Once he came off life-support, we began therapy designed to help his chest get used to taking deep breaths. It's important for the post-op patient to take deep breaths, otherwise they can get a nasty case of pneumonia. This patient did fairly well, he could take a pretty deep breath for someone who just had his chest completely opened up a few hours earlier.
He was eventually discharged to the cardiac ward. However, the next day, his oxygen requirements increased greatly. He began to wheeze and became short of breath. We realized his heart was in some kind of failure, so we put him on a breathing machine that would help him breathe during the day and night, but it didn't require a breathing tube. It fit on his face via tight fitting mask. This is called "bipap" therapy.
After about 4 days, things started to normalize. But not before he had utilized $100,000's in cardiopulmonary services, pharmaceuticals, physican expenses, hospital procedures and the like. What was supposed to be a non-complicated bypass surgery had turned into a nightmare for him and his family.
So why was he in this boat to begin with? What was the initial cause of his coronary artery disease? You guessed it, his smoking. He had no other contributing risk factors, no family history, no high cholesterol, nothing. He just smoked.
Think of it this way. Lets say each pack of cigarettes cost him on average $2.50 over that 40 year time period. Now multiply that by 356 days and then by 40 years. You get $35,600. Now add in the $300,000 in hospital expenses that were incurred and you get an average price per pack of $23.00. If smoking were that expensive would people buy them? Sure some would, but not as many. That is what you call the hidden cost of cigarettes. Now add in the lost productivity, pre-surgical testing and physician office visits, along with the post-surgical rehab he had to go through and the cost goes up even more.
Again, this isn't a fringe example of how smoking affects a person's health. It is very common place, albeit, most bypass surgeries aren't complicated. Despite this, even the uncomplicated bypass surgeries are costly and carry with them great risk. Why add that risk to your health profile? Better to just quit now and not take any further chances.
