A Heartbeat from Eternity

By THOMAS SANCTON

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 StairMaster 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.

With reporting by Michael Duffy/Washington