Cheney released from hospital
Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, went to a hospital Saturday after experiencing shortness of breath. Tests found no abnormalities, an aide said, and Cheney left after three hours.
“I feel fine,” the 63-year-old vice president said as he walked out with his wife, Lynne. Cheney smiled and waved. “Sorry we ruined your Saturday,” Mrs. Cheney said. “We’re great.”
A pacemaker implanted in Cheney’s chest three years ago indicated no irregularities during the past 90 days, said Mary Matalin, a spokeswoman for the vice president. The device gives doctors a three-month readout. She said an electrocardiogram, which measures the heart’s electrical activity, showed no change.
She said Cheney probably had a viral upper respiratory infection but there was no cardiac or pulmonary problem behind his shortness of breath.
Cheney, who has had four heart attacks, although none as vice president, returned Thursday night from a pheasant hunting trip in South Dakota with a cold that left him short of breath, Matalin said.
The vice president, who joined President Bush on Friday for meetings with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, felt fine otherwise, but his cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, recommended as a precaution that he go to George Washington University Hospital for tests.
“Everything looks great,” Matalin said before Cheney was released. “He’s walking around from room to room in his street clothes just waiting for the blood work.”