{"id":599141,"date":"2026-04-11T02:37:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T02:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/599141\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T02:37:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T02:37:34","slug":"heart-bypass-surgery-was-once-daunting-now-it-is-boringly-routine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/599141\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart bypass surgery was once daunting. Now it is ‘boringly routine’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year was 1975, the place Sydney.<\/p>\n

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was terrifying movie goers in cinemas, local rock band AC\/DC had released its debut album and then-29-year-old John Ross had double bypass heart surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital.<\/p>\n

After being told he may not live past 40, John is now thriving at 80.<\/p>\n

St Vincent’s, which has been treating John for nearly 51 years, believes he may be Australia’s longest-surviving double heart bypass patient.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

John Ross was a young father of two when he had double bypass surgery in 1975. (Supplied: John Ross)<\/p>\n

He’s just three years off the world title, currently held by US man Robert Miller<\/a>, who had the same type of surgery in 1972.<\/p>\n

John said although he trusted his medical team ahead of the 1975 operation, the concept of open-heart surgery was daunting.<\/p>\n

“I was a bit hesitant at first, but then I had faith in St Vincent’s and the doctors there, so I went ahead with it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was a bit of a jump off the cliff and see what happens [situation].”\"A<\/p>\n

John Ross believes his heart issues are genetic. (Supplied: John Ross)<\/p>\n

John’s leap of faith to undergo surgery helped to make the pioneering operation mainstream.<\/p>\n

Today, heart surgeons describe double bypass surgery as “boringly routine” with very few associated risks.<\/p>\n

About 17,000 bypass operations, also known as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgeries, are performed in Australia every year.<\/p>\n

As other interventions become available, the number of bypasses in Australia is on the decline, with those going under the knife now older and sicker than ever before.<\/p>\n

What is heart bypass surgery?<\/p>\n

In a healthy heart, arteries are flexible and elastic, but fatty plaque \u2014 caused by smoking, an unhealthy diet, obesity or genetic factors \u2014 can build up, making arteries narrow or harden and restrict blood flow.<\/p>\n

This can cause chest pain and lead to a heart attack.<\/p>\n

Coronary heart disease<\/a>, when the arteries clog or narrow, is a leading cause of death in Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

In a heart with coronary artery disease, a waxy substance called plaque builds up in the arteries. (Wikimedia Commons: Scientific Animations\/Girish Khera<\/a>, CC-BY-SA-4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Heart bypass surgery makes a new pathway for blood to travel so it can avoid narrow or blocked vessels, using vessels from a patient’s inner chest, arm or leg.<\/p>\n

People with more than one blocked artery may need a double, triple or quadruple bypass.<\/p>\n

Bypass surgery typically involves stopping the heart while the new pathways are attached, with a heart-lung machine taking over the pumping of oxygenated blood around the body.<\/p>\n

When John had his double bypass in May 1975, he was part of the first generation of patients to have the procedure in Australia, according to Paul Jansz, head of the transplant surgical unit at St Vincent’s.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Surgical theatres in the 1960s looked very different to modern ones. (Supplied: St Vincent’s Hospital)<\/p>\n

“The first bypass operation [in the world] was done in 1967 and the first in Australia was done in 1969, so he was in the first cohort of patients having bypass surgery,” Dr Jansz said.<\/p>\n

“He’s certainly the oldest patient or the longest-living patient I’ve known.”<\/p>\n

The 1967 surgery Dr Jansz referenced was the first successful bypass surgery of the coronary artery of the heart<\/a>, done by Argentinian doctor Rene Favaloro in Ohio’s Clevelend Clinic.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cardiac surgeon and educator Rene Favaloro pioneered coronary bypass surgery. (Supplied: Cleveland Clinic)<\/p>\n

Bypass surgery is now the most common cardiac surgery performed worldwide.<\/p>\n

“Cardiac surgery is remarkably routine these days. It’s boringly routine, which is what you want. You don’t want excitement,” Dr Jansz said.<\/p>\n

“Back in 1975, that was very different.<\/p>\n

“The whole concept of opening someone’s chest up and stopping their heart and operating on it was a new concept.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Paul Jansz says the real “breakthroughs” in bypass surgery have been in anaesthesia and the heart-lung machine. (Supplied: St Vincent\u2019s Hospital Sydney)<\/p>\n

From then to now<\/p>\n

Next month marks 51 years since John’s operation.<\/p>\n

And although surgical techniques have improved over the past five decades, Dr Jansz said “bizarrely” the actual bypass operation John underwent in 1975 would be very similar to one performed today.<\/p>\n

“The surgery of sewing two things together is reasonably stagnant,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The real breakthroughs have probably come in anaesthesia and in the bypass machine, so the heart-lung machine that we put people on so that we can take over their circulation while we stop and operate on their heart.<\/p>\n

“That sort of technology has really come along in leaps and bounds.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A typical bypass surgery today takes half the time it did in the 1970s. (ABC News: Brendan Esposito)<\/p>\n

Julian Smith, senior cardiothoracic surgeon at the Victorian Heart Hospital and professor of surgery at Monash University, said in some modern heart bypass operations stabilisers were used to keep one part of the heart still while the rest kept beating.<\/p>\n

This meant there wasn’t a need to stop the heart completely and link the patient up to a heart-lung machine, minimising potential risk.<\/p>\n

But Professor Smith said the most significant improvement was better patient outcomes, with cardiac surgery now a “lot quicker and a lot safer”.<\/p>\n

A double bypass may have taken about four or five hours in decades prior, Professor Smith said, but now only took two or three.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Julian Smith says cardiac surgeries in Australia are now being done on sicker and older patients, with good results. (Supplied: Monash University)<\/p>\n

Mortality rates are also down for all types of cardiac surgery in Australia \u2014 not just bypasses \u2014 from about 5\u201310 per cent in decades prior to 1\u20132 per cent, Professor Smith said.<\/p>\n

“The most important thing is that heart surgery has become much safer for our patients with excellent outcomes,” he said.<\/p>\n

Professor Smith said bypass surgeries were now performed on sicker and older patients.<\/p>\n

“Those really sick patients may have been denied surgery 50 years ago,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are doing probably harder operations on sicker patients but they’re doing well.”Better, early interventions<\/p>\n

Since the turn of the century, the rate of heart bypasses in Australia has steadily decreased<\/a>, as other options have become available.<\/p>\n

This includes using a balloon (angioplasty) or a wire tube (stent) to widen blocked arteries.<\/p>\n

And, Professor Smith explained, there was also greater community awareness about the risk factors for heart disease \u2014 such as smoking, high blood pressure and poor diet \u2014 and better non-surgical interventions.<\/p>\n

“There are drugs available now to reduce blood pressure, cholesterol, manage diabetes, help people stop smoking, to lower the risk and to mean that people may not even need bypass surgery or interventions,” he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Jansz agreed, adding that medical professionals were also better at picking up early warning signs than they were in in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

“We’re also getting patients a lot earlier \u2014 before they have heart attacks and damage their heart \u2014 because our surveillance picking up heart disease is much better,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Primary prevention is key.”\"<\/p>\n

John and Jenny Ross are grateful for the medical support he has received over the decades. (Supplied: John Ross)<\/p>\n

The best way to look after your heart, according to the experts, is with a healthy diet, regular physical activity, quality sleep, managing stress and regular health checks.<\/p>\n

In future years, Professor Smith said specialists hoped cardiac surgery would become “less and less invasive”.<\/p>\n

Something that would not have been possible without early patients like John putting up their hands for surgery.<\/p>\n

Professor Smith said he was happy to hear that John was still thriving more than five decades after his double bypass.<\/p>\n

“It’s a good innings. He’s obviously looked after himself,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The year was 1975, the place Sydney. Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was terrifying movie goers in cinemas, local rock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,292178,292177,137,207263,292176,9049,217397,292183,292180,292179,292181,292182],"class_list":{"0":"post-599141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cardiac-operation","11":"tag-double-bypass","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-heart-issues","14":"tag-heart-operation","15":"tag-heart-surgery","16":"tag-st-vincents","17":"tag-what-are-long-term-outcomes-of-heart-bypass-surgery","18":"tag-what-is-a-double-bypass","19":"tag-what-is-a-heart-bypass","20":"tag-what-is-a-heart-graft","21":"tag-what-is-artery-bypass-grafting-heart-surgery"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}