In article ,
Stealth Pilot wrote:

I could be jaundiced here but surely the drugs were prescribed.
was the real failure a failure of the american medical system to
diagnose and correctly treat his blocked anterior artery?

I don't see how any other medical system would have guaranteed finding
and fixing the problem.

The autopsy noted "a 'totally occluded' small left anterior descending
coronary artery with 'good collaterals² and otherwise normal coronary
arteries".

This is no indication of significant reduced cardiac function; the loss
of blood flow through the "small anterior artery" would be at least
partially offset by the "good collaterals", and frankly was probably
completely asymptomatic.

It might not even have been noted through a cardiac stress test,
although is also probably an early precursor of further cardiac
degradation a decade or two down the road.

Perhaps some other national medical system routinely requires periodic
CAT scans of all adults through life? Because nothing less would be
likely to have found that problem.

Earlier this year, my wife had a stent installed in her right coronary
artery, which was ~95% blocked. That is a major artery, and in her case,
without "good collateral" development to carry part of the load.

We only figured out there was a problem while hiking at the top of Mt.
Haleakala (we were visiting our daughter and son-in-law who live on
Maui) that she was more short of breath than expected. A couple months
later, she was showing similar symptoms working around the house, and we
dropped everything and got it looked at. Failed treadmill test, etc. led
to getting the stent installed a couple days later. And she's fine now,
getting better, and we're back to cycling more/farther/harder than we
have for a couple three years.

The point being that her condition was worse than his, and not
noticeable until it had progressed well beyond what was reported by the
NTSB.