TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/051391/0513103.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.5 KB | 115 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 24

A Heartbeat from Eternity


Stricken with fatigue and shortness of breath while running,
Bush recovers after giving the nation a little scare

By THOMAS SANCTON -- With reporting by Michael Duffy/Washington


    It seemed like a routine Saturday for George Bush. The
President was relaxing at Camp David after flying home from Ann
Arbor, where he had given a commencement address at the
University of Michigan. In the middle of the afternoon he donned
his running togs and began to pound the pine-needle-covered
trails of the 200-acre retreat. At 4:20 the President was
suddenly stricken with fatigue and shortness of breath. Secret
Service agents walked him to the Camp David infirmary, and from
there he was rushed by helicopter to Bethesda Naval Hospital.

    Initial tests indicated that Bush had suffered from an
irregular heartbeat, or atrial fibrillation, a condition that
can be brought on by stress but is not necessarily a serious
health threat. There were no signs of heart damage. By early
evening the President was dining on steak and salad in his
hospital room, where he was to spend the night. Described as
being in good spirits, he joked about arranging a "two-week
vacation," and watched a televised press briefing on his
condition, during which he even telephoned the White House press
room to say he had been walking and jogging for 40 minutes
before he was stricken. Typically, he had brought a briefcase
full of paper work, and consulted with White House chief of
staff John Sununu, who met him at the hospital.

    Vice President Dan Quayle remained at his home in
Washington but phoned Bush to exchange what were described as
"pleasantries." Quayle had been immediately informed of the
President's jogging mishap, but no moves were made to activate
the lines of presidential succession. "There was never any
question of the President losing consciousness and being unable
to continue his functions," said White House press secretary
Marlin Fitzwater. Public concern about Bush, one of the most
popular chief executives in U.S. history, was probably
intensified by the fact that his constitutionally designated
successor is not highly regarded as a potential President. A
recent TIME/CNN poll, for example, indicated that only 19% of
Americans were prepared to vote for Quayle as a presidential
candidate in 1996.

    In his initial briefing, Fitzwater stressed that his boss
was "stable" and that there was no cause for alarm. There were
"no indications at this time that he had a heart attack," said
Fitzwater, who added that Bush was "calm, cool and collected."
The President, he said, was being treated with the drug Digoxin
to restore normal heart rhythm and was expected to leave the
hospital the following day. Seeking to make light of the
episode, Fitzwater said doctors had told Bush he "could be back
jogging in a matter of days."

    That raised a few eyebrows in the press room. After Bush's
last checkup, in March, his physician, Dr. Burton Lee III,
pronounced the President to be "in excellent health" and
described him as "an extraordinarily vigorous man who continues
to thrive on a great deal of physical activity and a rigorous,
demanding work schedule." Yet last week's incident could not
help but bring up the question of whether it was prudent -- to
use a favorite Bush word -- for a 66-year-old man to continue
jogging.

    Some of Bush's associates have privately wondered about
that for some time. One Administration official recalls meeting
with Bush at the White House a year ago just after the
President had jogged three miles. "Bush's face was beet red, his
head wrapped in two wet towels," he recalls. "It looked as if
he was completely fatigued."

    Last summer Bush's doctors told him to ease up on the
jogging, not because of his heart but because of a mild
degenerative arthritis condition in his hips. Advised to switch
to low-impact aerobics, Bush had Stair Master and Lifecycle
machines installed in his private upstairs office at the White
House. He cut his jogging to a couple of miles once a week or
so.

    According to medical experts, the kind of heartbeat
irregularity that affected the President is not in itself a
serious condition. "Usually when you have so-called atrial
fibrillation," said Dr. Timothy Johnson, ABC News medical
editor, "it does affect the pumping of the heart to some degree,
and that's why there may be shortness of breath, but it does not
represent a major problem in the major pumping chambers of the
heart, the lower chambers." Dr. Lyle Micheli, director of sports
medicine at Boston's Children's Hospital, says that jogging
alone would be unlikely to provoke such a condition in a regular
runner like Bush. "It can happen at that age just
spontaneously," he said. "Whether it means there is an
underlying problem, I really rather doubt it. Atrial
fibrillation is really a benign condition."

    On Sunday, the White House reported that x-rays and blood
tests showed no heart damage, but that the irregular beat
persisted and that the patient would remain in the hospital
during the day for further observation. Bush was still expected
to return to a full workweek, however. If so, the episode would
soon be over and forgotten. But it was a real scare, if only a
momentary one, and a stark reminder that even the most vigorous
and active of Presidents is only a heartbeat away from eternity.