We were pleased to see a Google doodle tribute today to Dr. René Favaloro, highly regarded for his pioneering work on coronary artery bypass surgery using the great saphenous vein… one of the large veins in the leg. He was born this day in 1923 in Argentina.
The technique he developed is what Dick had done in January in Honolulu by Dr. John Y. Lee at Kaiser Moanalua hospital. Working in Northern California as a cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Lee become a pioneer in endoscopic vein harvesting, which involves removing the leg vein through a tiny one-inch incision for bypass surgery. He extracted Dick’s great saphenous vein that was used to create three bypasses around blocked arteries.
Five months later, as we vacation on Vancouver Island (a very different island than Oahu), we honor the late Dr. Favaloro. We’re also thinking today of the cardiac team at Kaiser Moanalua, including surgeon Dr. Nicholas Dang and the cardiac P.A.s Whitney Regan and Tim Berkeley. We think of Dr. Diana Kim and nurses Jaime and Erin and Donovan and Sally and so many others who literally nursed Dick back to good health.
He’s better than he has been in years, this fella, and we continue to be aware of our great good fortune, wishing we could pass it on to others we know who are struggling, health-wise, right now. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, too.
Gracias to Dr. Favaloro. Mahalo to our ohana in Hawaii.
Güd wrtr 
I must have missed that doodle as I didn’t access Google yesterday. Thanks, Jan for bringing it to my attention. Bob would have appreciated this tribute just as much as Dick. Hugs.