Soviet Artist Has Emergency Heart Bypass Surgery : Health: Writers Guild scrambles to help pay enormous medical bill for writer-director Iraqli Kvirikadze. He was in town for festival.

Award-winning Soviet writer-director Iraqli Kvirikadze, in town as part of the American/Soviet Screenwriters’ Festival, underwent emergency quadruple-bypass surgery Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center--but not until the hospital received a written guarantee for the $60,000 estimated cost.

Only $25,000 of the cost was covered by a U.S. medical insurance policy. The remainder was donated within hours by the Writers Guild Foundation, a small, charitable arm of the Writers Guild of America and an organizer of the festival. Because the Writers Guild could not appropriate such a sum without a vote of its membership, the foundation was forced to put its own financial stability on the line.

“This was no little operation,” said Ron Wise, spokesman for Cedars-Sinai. “A quadruple bypass requires the full technical resources of the medical center. A full staff must be on hand. If someone comes in and his life is in danger, we’d probably move immediately and try to recover the money later. . . . Where possible, though, we’d like a guarantee upfront.”

Kvirikadze, 51, was admitted to Cedars-Sinai on Wednesday after experiencing weakness and arm pain. After tests to diagnose his condition, physicians recommended heart surgery.

“If Iraqli had to have heart trouble, this is the place to be,” said Melville Shavelson, president of the Writers Guild Foundation. “But it was also quite an introduction to the American capitalist system. (This development) may cost us more than the entire film festival, but we’ll manage with mirrors . . . and writers. A number of the Americans who went on the first leg of the festival last May offered immediately to write out checks. And we’ll probably have a fund-raiser before long.”

The insurance policy covering part of Kvirikadze’s medical costs was taken out by festival organizers shortly before the Soviet group arrived in Los Angeles. The guild is negotiating with the insurance company and hospital to determine the specifics of the policy and the cost of his treatment.

Kvirikadze, whose film “Comrade Stalin Goes to Africa” had its world premiere at the festival last Thursday, is weak, but steadily improving, doctors said.

“As a director, everything is interesting to me,” he said Tuesday through an interpreter. “Though I was reluctant to be admitted, what the hell, I thought. A night in an American hospital will be an experience.”

It was not until doctors conducted coronary tests that they realized the severity of his condition.

“He was very unstable and I told him that, if it was me, I’d have bypass surgery before leaving the hospital,” said cardiologist Dr. Arthur Smith. “It’s a procedure not as freely available in the Soviet Union and, without it, he might have a serious heart attack or even die.”

Kvirikadze, who makes his home in Tbilisi--the capital of the Soviet republic of Georgia--credits the U.S. health care system with saving his life.

“Compared with Americans, we are barbarians in terms of our attitude toward our own health,” he said. “I could have ignored this for dozens of years. It’s very strange. There’s a scene in my movie in which I’m on camera experiencing an apparent heart attack. The actors carry me off unconscious. That it actually happened is, in a way, almost mystical.”

Kvirikadze’s wife, filmmaker Nana Kvirikadze, said she is overwhelmed by the generosity of the film community.

“I can only imagine the problems this caused for everyone around us,” she said. “But if there was a money problem, no one let us know. Even before this happened, I fell in love with the people and the city. How beautiful to have one foot on the ocean and one foot on the mountains. When my friends back home say the Americans are capitalistic and lack spirituality, I’ll tell them ‘nonsense.’ There’s nothing but good hearts and kindness here.”