This was in Australia. A senior cardiologist has no motivation other than saving your life, and the symptoms were very clear.
Meanwhile a stent operation is relatively trivial - as was explained later in the piece.
If he'd asked for a second opinion it could very well have added enough time to make things a lot worse.
Interestingly this article on HN last week addressed the finding that while stents are often prescribed for chest pain symptoms it is doubtful they have a more favorable outcome than other treatments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13713563#13716162
