Pakistan, May 17 -- In the divine act of creation, the Almighty fashioned the human form with organs so perfectly attuned to one another that health and vigour depend upon their unbroken harmony. No faculty may falter without imperilling the rest. Foremost among them is the heart, which tirelessly propels the life-blood from the seat of intellect in the brain to the remotest vein in the toes. Through carelessness or affliction, however, obstructions arise; vessels constrict, clots form, and the vital current slows. Medicine is first employed to restore flow; when remedies prove inadequate, a stent may reopen the passage; and in the gravest peril, the surgeon must perform a bypass to safeguard existence itself.

Such, in many respects, is ...