Angioplasty

 Angioplasty

Entering a radial artery in a man’s wrist; a thin wire, a stent,

and a tiny balloon, travelled through a catheter,

to a blocked coronary artery, whereat, the balloon,

was briefly inflated, deflated, and removed,

along with the wire; the stent having been opened

and left in the artery; thus ending the procedure,

after which, the man was placed in post-procedure

recovery; the wound on his wrist, where the stent

began its journey, now TR banded, lest it be opened:

presumably this was fitted after the catheter,

having served its purpose, was finally removed,

following extraction of the thin wire and tiny balloon.

The surgeon who’d inflated and deflated the tiny balloon,

in the man’s coronary artery, during the procedure,

bade good morning to another: a surgeon who removed

and replaced old pacemaker batteries. Fitting a stent

seems minor, by comparison, although the catheter

used isn’t as long and, once the old scar’s been opened,

replacement is relatively simple; the freshly opened

scar very rarely gets infected, and, instead of a balloon;

a new battery is sent through a shorter catheter,

in order to replace the old battery; the whole procedure

taking roughly the same time it takes to have a stent

fitted, supposing the old battery can easily be removed;

and yet: a patient in a bed opposite, was nearly removed

to intensive care, because after the patient’s opened

wound was stitched, the man with the newly fitted stent,

concernedly observed, events appearing to balloon

out of control, post battery replacement procedure,

necessitating the insertion of a new catheter,

into the patient’s wrist, hence mirroring the catheter

insertion, performed prior to it being removed,

upon completion of the previous procedure,

involving the invasive insertion of a stent

into a coronary artery, succeeded by a balloon

exiting the coronary artery, “Successfully” opened,

during the "Minor" procedure, whereupon, the radial artery, opened

in order to allow the catheter, to be inserted and removed,

was duel-compression-balloon sealed, as lifeblood flowed through the stent.