Reagan ‘Fine’ After Getting Clean Bill

President Reagan stuck his head out of his hospital room window today and shouted to reporters that he is feeling fine after surgeons informed him that the ounce of tissue removed from his enlarged prostate Monday is free of cancer.

Reagan, waiting for a visit by his wife, Nancy, leaned out the third-floor window at Bethesda Naval Hospital and told reporters he is “fine.”

Dressed in a red robe, Reagan was asked when he will be released from the hospital.

“Oh, maybe the day after tomorrow,” he said.

Reagan looked in good spirits as he bantered with reporters for about two minutes and then shouted to his wife as she arrived, “I knew you’d be wearing a red dress so I could recognize you.”

‘Champing at the Bit’

A White House spokesman said the President “is champing at the bit to get out of the hospital.”

Dr. John Hutton, the President’s physician, said: “The President is recovering very well from surgery yesterday. He feels good and has not complained of any pain.

“His vital signs are all in the normal range and are stable and strong. There is no evidence of post-operative infection. His physicians are impressed and extremely pleased by the President’s resilence and condition.

“Final laboratory results on tissue removed during yesterday’s trans-urethral resection are in and show the tissue to be benign.”

Hutton said the President, after he was informed of these results when his physicians visited him shortly after 8 a.m., said, ‘Well, then, what am I doing here?”’

Reagan was to undergo a CAT scan, a final test to determine whether there has been any spread of cancer in the abdomen or pelvis, “probably after 6 p.m. tonight so as not to disrupt the hospital routine,” Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes said.

Results of the CAT scan will be available Wednesday.