Cheney Treated For Abnormal Heart Rhythm

Vice President Returns Home After Electric Shock Returns His Heartbeat To Normal

(AP)  Vice President Dick Cheney was treated "without complication" Wednesday for an abnormal heartbeat, his office said, making a short visit to a hospital to restore his normal rhythm with an electric shock.

It was the second time in less than a year that Cheney, a 67-year-old with a history of four heart attacks, had experienced and been treated for an atrial fibrillation, an abnormal rhythm involving the upper chambers of the heart. The episode caused the vice president to cancel his attendance at a political campaign event in Illinois.

Sensing a problem early Wednesday, Cheney saw the White House physician, who discovered the vice president was experiencing a recurrence of the irregular heartbeat. Cheney participated in regular morning briefings with President Bush, among other duties, and remained working at the White House until he went to George Washington University Hospital in the afternoon for treatment.

The process took nearly two hours, after which Cheney went home, said Megan Mitchell, a Cheney spokeswoman.

"An electrical impulse was delivered to restore the heart to normal rhythm," she said. "The procedure went smoothly and without complication."

Cheney told Bush of his condition. The president responded "like he would with any friend," said spokesman Tony Fratto, by wishing the vice president well and telling him to "go and make sure the doctors do what they need to do."

Later, in Ada, Mich., Bush told reporters that Cheney is "going to be fine."

"He said he was confident, the doctors are confident, and therefore I'm confident," Bush said.

Cheney also experienced atrial fibrillation in November 2007, and doctors also administered an electrical shock then in a treatment that took about 2 1/2 hours. That irregular heartbeat was discovered while White House doctors were treating the vice president for a lingering cough from a cold.

Dr. Zayd Eldadah, director of cardiac arrhythmia research at Washington Hospital Center, said it's not unusual for Cheney to have another such episode. An estimated 2.8 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, the most common type of irregular heartbeat and one that is not life-threatening in itself.

"This kind of rhythm problem generally does keep coming back over time," said Eldadah, who is not involved in Cheney's care. "The natural history of atrial fibrillation in people who have heart disease and are older is that it keeps coming back, and generally comes back more frequently."

The main risk from atrial fibrillation is not that Cheney will have another heart attack, but that he eventually could have a stroke if the rhythm problem is not treated.

Atrial fibrillation causes the upper chambers of the heart to quiver, instead of pump. As a result, some blood can pool in the heart. When blood settles, it tends to clot. And if those clots are then pumped out to the body, they can lodge in tiny blood vessels in the brain and cause a stroke.

The procedure Cheney underwent Wednesday is like resetting a computer, Eldadah explained. It involves sedation, and then an electrical charge delivered to the heart. "The heart will be turned off and on to reset it," said Eldadah. "It's a quick fix to restore normal rhythm."

If the procedure doesn't work, patients typically are put on blood thinners to prevent clotting.

"Atrial fibrillation in patients like Vice President Cheney is not a source of great worry or alarm," Eldadah said. "It's very treatable."

Cheney has had four heart attacks, starting when he was 37, and many heart-related doctor's and hospital visits over the years since. He has had quadruple bypass surgery and two artery-clearing angioplasties. In 2001, he had a special pacemaker implanted in his chest. The pacemaker's battery was replaced last year, and then the entire device was replaced.

The type of defibrillator Cheney has is used to prevent sudden death from a very different type of irregular heartbeat than atrial fibrillation, a much more serious kind that starts in the bottom of the heart.

In 2005, he also had surgery to repair an arterial aneurysm on the back of each knee.

In his checkup in July, doctors said Cheney's heart was beating normally for a man of his age and health history.

The campaign visit that Cheney canceled was for Marty Ozinga, a concrete company owner who is running for the House against Democrat Debbie Halvorson, a high-ranking Illinois state senator. Mitchell said Cheney called the event instead to express his support for the candidate.

[slim1h2o]

All in thanks to the Illegal Immigrant. It''''''''s time that you woke up to what the real problem is.

Posted by slim1h2o

Yeah, and in the 30''''s the "problem" was the Joos.

Screw you fascist.



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Posted by jumkey at 02:31 PM : Oct 15, 2008

You know nothing of what you talk about.

I see your posts on here, and its the same thing over and over.

You insult people, and yet know nothing.

[slim1h2o]

Sir, you take out 12 million people out of the US, legals or not, and the present recession will go straight into a Depression.
It is in times like these when we need more people to spend on the economy.
You don''''t know what you''''re talking about.


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Posted by closethippy1 at 02:03 PM

If we take those 12 mllion out of the equation, thats money saved.

Money saved by NOT giving it away on food stamps, or other welfare benefits that, somehow(?), legal Americans can''t get, or qualify for.

But, illegals do get somehow.

[u-r-right]

Well, huh, I didn''t know he had a heart!

[demwatcher]

A Conversation of a Liberal''''s Family While He is Posting on CBS.com:


Little Daughter: Mommy, what does Daddy mean.

Mother: He wants Mr Cheney to go away.

LD: You mean go on a vacation?"

M: Not really. He justs wants him to go to sleep.

LD: You, you mean like how we found Granpa last Christmas?

M: Yes, Honey.

LD: Did Daddy want Granpa to go away too?


Sad, isn''''t it.

[kazoodan]

"And when it is said to them, "Come, the Messenger of Allah will pray for your forgiveness", they turn aside their heads, and thou wouldst see them turning away their faces in arrogance." Quran 063-005

Posted by waqahi at 11:33 AM : Oct 15, 2008

Thanks, I missed my daily rug ride today.

[BigCatOne]

"Darth" Cheney''s heart returns to normal? Meaning black as pitch, darker than a black cat in a coal mine at midnight on a moonless night?

He and Palin make quite a pair-Sarah Palin is a member of a hate group so vicious that they preyed for the deaths of Mother Teresa and Princess Di, and so crazy that they believe that God answered their prayers. If you are a Mormon, a Catholic, a Mason, or a member of many other decent and respectable groups which they call "corrupt religious systems," you are on their hit list.

See:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/sarah-palin-linked-to-spi_b_132819.html

See:

http://www.battleaxe.org/CRSystems.html

[tannerbird]

I LOVE THAT PHOTO THEY USE IT EVERY TIME IT MAKES ME THINK HE SHI! HI PANTS HA HA

[tannerbird]

IT COULD NOT BE HIS HEART NO WAY.

[petesis]

I thought Cheney had his heart removed back in 90?

[cdfoxtrot4]

Somebody drop a large pane of plate glass behind that man when he least expects it.....

Posted by NoRepubs

The problem is that this guy probably has the best health care of anyone in the entire world. Anyone else with the l0usy life-style he has and nasty demeanor would be dead long ago. He''s got fantastic health care of the kind that the rest of us can only dream of. The evil ones always seem to live the longest.
C''est la vie.

[norepubs]

Somebody drop a large pane of plate glass behind that man when he least expects it.....

[cdfoxtrot4]

This ********** is responsible for countless numbers of people dying prematurely. Fu_ck him.

[easeup-2009]

I love these childish temper tantrums!!!!

What a bunch of drama queens.....

[simplemind2]

Sooooo?
Who cares!
Go f*ck yourself!

[notfooled]

I truly wish Cheney long life and good health,

so he can spend many years in prison for his role in the Iraq bloodbath for profit scam.

[itdfactsu]

While everyone is crowing that the Dems and GOP are no different, had Gore become president in 2000 we never would have gone to war in IRAQ and, 4000+ Dads and Moms, Brothers, Sisters, Friends and Lovers would still be here. NEVER FORGET THAT.


Posted by sfden at 05:57 PM : Oct 15, 2008

Certainly wonder what would''ve happened

The evening of United States presidential election,

November 7, 2000

Was a profound evening?

When I heard the radio report that Al Gore had won the election

I was relieved that Gore would be President and not Bush and about thirty minutes later I heard the announcement that Florida was back in play, I was shocked

Yes the world would be different

But who knows if those behind the IRAQ WAR would''ve been able to get Gore to invade IRAQ impossible to know now but certainly more difficult than getting Bush and Cheney since Cheney was a PNAC signatory and Bush''s staff was filled with the PNAC gang

[jss2003]

How about this? Uncle Dickie and Palin on a hunting trip?

[skydotcom]

How can someone without a heart have "heart problems"?

[wherenextnow]

HOW IS THIS GUYS STILL ALIVE I DON''T KNOW!!

Posted by JoshMayoff75 at 05:55 PM : Oct 15, 2008
------

By the grace of Satan.....

[wherenextnow]

A little waterboarding would have done the trick just as well.