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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: username who wrote (87158)	11/25/2000 7:44:34 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Mr. Cheney's Heart Attack mericans should be relieved that Dick Cheney, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, has apparently suffered no serious effects from what is now acknowledged to have been a mild heart attack Wednesday morning and was fit enough to leave the hospital yesterday. But they also have reason to be concerned by the failure of Mr. Cheney's aides and doctors to inform the public fully and promptly about his true condition. Although everyone is entitled to a right to privacy on matters of personal health, the American public has long asserted a competing interest in knowing the fitness of those who aspire to and hold the country's highest offices. Recent history, from Woodrow Wilson's stroke to Paul Tsongas's ultimately fatal cancer, is replete with instances in which senior officials or their doctors or both have conspired to hide important medical information. Wednesday's bumbling performance may not fall into the category of deliberate misinformation, but it did not cover anyone with glory. Reporting chest pains, Mr. Cheney checked into George Washington University Hospital before dawn on Wednesday. Preliminary tests apparently revealed no heart attack, and early in the morning he felt well enough to speak to Mr. Bush. At a news conference in Texas five hours later, Mr. Bush said that his running mate had sounded "strong and vigorous," and asserted flatly that tests had shown there had been "no heart attack." Aides later said that Mr. Bush did not know that by the time he gave his cheery diagnosis, Mr. Cheney's doctors had become sufficiently concerned by a second electrocardiogram to perform a catheterization and then angioplasty to open up a clogged artery. Karen Hughes, Mr. Bush's press secretary, later said she had learned about the catheterization, but had not so informed Mr. Bush. Whatever the reason, Mr. Bush seemed embarrassingly in the dark. Mr. Cheney had in fact suffered a mild heart attack. But it took two further news conferences for the world to learn that. At an early afternoon news conference, Dr. Alan Wasserman, George Washington's chairman of medicine, said that blood tests taken that morning and evaluated around noon showed "minimally elevated" cardiac enzymes. Dr. Wasserman said later that he assumed that people would clearly understand from this that Mr. Cheney had suffered a heart attack. Mr. Bush's aides said that they had asked the doctors to be more direct, and at a later news conference Dr. Wasserman finally used the words "heart attack." Episodes like this can only increase public skepticism, but Wednesday's confusion can ultimately serve a useful purpose if it prompts fuller disclosure. None of the four candidates were particularly forthcoming during the campaign, and the public deserves a fuller medical accounting from each one.