There has been yet another medical breakthrough announced last week: “Medical breakthrough raises hopes for heart attack patients” and the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the research, strongly welcomed the findings.
Now if you, or a loved one (in my case), has undergone any treatment for a heart condition, such announcements can provide hope and expectations where previously there may have been little of either. When I see the words “medical breakthrough” however, personally I cringe! We are all holding out hope for medical breakthroughs – be them heart treatments, or cures for MS, diabetes or cancer – but I’ve long ago learnt that such announcements should be read with a degree of scepticism.
