Doctor Says Cheney Has a Cold, Not Heart Trouble

Vice President Dick Cheney, who has had four heart attacks, underwent three hours of tests at a Washington hospital Saturday after suffering shortness of breath but went home when doctors found no abnormalities.

“I feel fine,” Cheney, 63, said as he walked out of George Washington University Medical Center and waved to reporters.

“Sorry we ruined your Saturday,” said his wife, Lynne.

Because of Cheney’s long history of heart trouble, neither he nor his doctors were inclined to ignore the signs of a potential problem.

The vice president went pheasant hunting in South Dakota last week and returned to Washington on Thursday with a cold. On Saturday, his cough and breathing distress had worsened, and his cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, said Cheney should go to the hospital for a round of heart tests. Reporters gathered outside to await news.

White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. notified President Bush shortly after the president finished a bike ride at a Secret Service training facility outside Washington that the vice president had gone to the hospital, White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said.

Cheney spokeswoman Mary Matalin soon issued a statement noting that Cheney had walked into the hospital. The vice president, she said, was wearing street clothes and walking from room to room as he awaited the results of his blood test. She said an electrocardiogram, taken to measure the heart’s electrical activity, showed no abnormalities.

“Everything looks great,” Matalin told Associated Press. “He was doing this just as a precaution.” By the end of the day, Cheney’s doctor said the cold, not his heart, must be the source of Cheney’s breathing difficulty.

“Tests ruled out any cardiac cause of the vice president’s symptoms. Tests also ruled out pneumonia and other pulmonary causes. The vice president likely has a viral, upper respiratory infection,” Reiner said in a statement issued by the White House.

Cheney suffered his first heart attack in 1978, when he was 37. In 1988, he underwent quadruple-bypass surgery after his third heart attack. Four years ago this month, while the election results from Florida were uncertain, Cheney suffered what doctors described as a “very slight” heart attack, and he had an angioplasty to open a clogged artery.

After his fourth heart attack, Cheney said he quit smoking and began a daily exercise program and started watching his diet. He also had a pacemaker implanted in his chest in June 2001.

His past health problems have not limited his functioning as vice president, administration officials say, and experts say Cheney has been one of the most powerful vice presidents in the nation’s history.

As a former Defense secretary, he came into office with strong views on the use of the military. Shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Cheney was a leading advocate of launching a war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Cheney insisted that Hussein represented a threat to the United States and the Mideast because of his history of aggression toward neighboring countries and past use of chemical weapons. In a series of public statements before the war and after the fall of Baghdad, the vice president accused Hussein of having possessed weapons of mass destruction. None has been found.

In campaign stops, Cheney offered an optimistic assessment of the war in Iraq. “I think it’s been a remarkable success story to date when you look at what’s been accomplished overall,” Cheney said on Oct. 25 at an Ohio rally.

The vice president campaigned across the country for the reelection of Bush and himself. In September, Cheney took time during the bitterly partisan contest to call former President Bill Clinton in the hospital, where Clinton was awaiting bypass surgery.

“I just called to let him know we’re thinking about him,” Cheney told reporters at the time. “I’ve been through a similar experience before. The key was to have the good sense to go get it checked if you thought you had a problem, which he obviously did.”

Cheney told reporters that he had spoken with Clinton about the quadruple bypass he had 16 years ago.

“I was living proof of the wonders of modern medicine,” he said he told the former president, “and I’m sure [it will] go fine for him too.” Clinton underwent surgery Sept. 6 and is continuing his recovery.

Cheney followed a somewhat less frenetic campaign schedule than the other principals, but on the weekend before the election he flew to Hawaii in hopes of bringing the normally Democratic state into the Republican column.

Cheney predicted that the Bush-Cheney team would have a 52%-47% victory over Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry and John Edwards. The Republicans won 51% to 48%.