Bird, you need to consider a career in cardiology. I mean this. You explained that better than I could have. The only thing you took a shortcut through--I think it's because this step is one you automatically understand so it seemed like a given--was right after the clot blocked the artery. That blockage from the thrombus caused the heart to go into ventricular fibrillation (first v-tach, then v-fib after about 45 seconds of the tach, most likely). The random quivering of the ventricles is what made Tim's heart unable to supply his brain and body with oxygenated blood rather than the blockage itself.

Poor Mr. Russert. He was my favorite broadcast journalist. His death killed the spirit of heart docs all over the country worse than any others. It's the the sad story of our specialty. You can treat and treat and treat this devil disease. But it will still kill far too many people--more than any other disease--with sudden death out of the blue.