Trains have special meaning for Richard Wallace.
"I grew up a few blocks from the Pennsylvania railroads mainline," he said.
He watched the trains while his mother cooked dinner.
"She died of a heart attack when she was 47," he said.
Richard took after his mom.
"I had a heart attack on March 5 of my 47th year," he said.
In the last seven years, he's had 25 stents in his heart, all put in through a catheter, which makes the procedure less invasive. But getting the catheter out can be an ordeal.
"They're straddling you. There's at least two people. It feels like they're reaching in and pulling your bones out through your skin," he said.
Cardiologist Barry Weinstock is using a new approach called the Mynx.
"It's a soft sponge that's absorbable," said Dr. Barry Weinstock, a cardiologist, Mid-Florida Cardiology Specialists.
A sponge is threaded through the catheter. It plugs up the hole in the artery to stop the bleeding so doctors don't have to apply extreme pressure to the groin.
"This is entirely outside the artery and it's just a soft, absorbent sponge, so there's really no danger of damage to the artery," said Dr. Weinstock.
Richard had no pain. He needed just one day of rest.
"The recovery time was so much faster. It was almost like, boom, it's over," he said.
Dr. Weinstock says this approach costs more, but those costs are balanced out by a shorter hospital stay.
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