Bexley High School graduate Dr. Louis Cannon returned to his alma mater April 7 with his heart in his hands.

Actually, it was someone else’s heart, one of the many visual aids he used to discuss cardiovascular health, as the first participant in the Dr. Judah Folkman Scientist in Residence program.

“Look to the right of you, and look to the left of you. One of those two people will die of heart disease,” Cannon told students.

But while heart disease remains the number one killer in the United States today, the prognosis for future generations will be a wider range of treatments, with lower cost, shorter hospital stays and higher survival rates, Cannon offered.

As president of the Michigan Cardio­vascular Institute, in Saginaw, Cannon and his colleagues are on the cutting edge of new technologies to fight heart disease. The center provides patient care for 30 percent of the cardiac patients in Michigan.

Cannon said he chose a career in medicine, particularly cardiovascular care, as a way to help people in life and death situations.

Probably none of Cannon’s high school teachers would have wanted (or expected) to see the mediocre student standing over them if they had a heart attack.

“It came as a bit of a surprise to many,” admitted Bexley High science teacher Jim Tatman, who was Cannon’s baseball coach and assistant wrestling coach.

Cannon confessed to students that he was less than an exemplary student, receiving D’s in algebra and C’s in science.

While an athlete, he couldn’t even get straight A’s in gym.

He shared his less-than-stellar high school academic standing to show students that it’s never too late to turn things around and make a contribution to society.

Cannon did learn some lessons from wrestling coach Vince Speciale, who instilled in him self-motivation and discipline and the conviction that “losing stunk.”

Cannon took his athletic ambitions to Wittenberg University, where he entered on academic probation.

While his athletic career stagnated, he began following his future wife, Sally, to the library, where his academic standing revived.

Upon graduation, he confronted two career choices: medicine or furniture sales in the family business.

Medicine appeared to be the more exciting choice, despite the promise of another 12 years of training and increasing government regulation of health care.

After a stint in cardiac research on pigs in Cincinnati, Cannon switched to patient care, where he found his clients much more appreciative than his previous porcine patients.

Clinics such as the Michigan Institute have made strides in both patient care and technology, he illustrated.

The old therapy provided for a doctor “on call,” the use of clot-dissolving medicines and a five to seven-day wait for a catheterization after a heart attack.

The Michigan Cardiovascular Institute’s “best practice” arranges for a doctor in-house 24 hours a day to immediately respond to heart attacks. This eliminates the need for clot dissolvers as a stopgap measure, which allows for immediate catheterization, reducing the length of hospital stays and the death rate from heart attacks.

New technologies in freeing clogged arteries include the use of ultrasound energy to break up blockage; laser catheters; and a “rotoblator,” which acts like a dentist’s drill to grind through deposits.

Treatment options that will be available when today’s high school students reach middle age will include gene therapy to dissolve blockages, Cannon said.

‘While treatments continue to progress, preventing heart disease in the future will be up to the individual, since the causes of the problem are lifestyle decisions, he added.

Cannon recommended that his audience stay away from smoking, either tobacco or marijuana, since one joint has as much tar as 25 cigarettes.

He also suggested a balance of exercise, weight and a diet low in fat.

Regular screenings for cholesterol, blood pressure and a stress test are recommended for men over 45 and women over 50.

Today’s young people should benefit not only from new technologies, but added awareness of health risks, Cannon said.

“They have the benefit of research that our parents didn’t have,” Cannon said.

The Judah Folkman Scientist in Residence program has been established with money from Bexley residents Lee Hess and Irene Levine, in the name of Folkman, a 1950 Bexley High graduate, now a cancer research her associated with the Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Lawrence Krakoff, a 1955 graduate and chief of medicine at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital and Medical Center, also met with students on April 10.

Folkman will be the high school graduation speaker in June.