How Does Dick Cheney's Ticker Keep On Ticking? [View All]

[madmom]

(Feb. 24) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney was released from the hospital this morning, after being admitted Monday because of chest pain that turned out to be a mild heart attack. It's yet another mar on Cheney's already spotty medical track record, and it begs an obvious question: How much more can one man's heart take?.....

...This latest heart attack is the fifth for Cheney, 69. He suffered his first in 1978, when he was only 37 years old. Three subsequent heart attacks occurred before Cheney became vice president in 2001 -- two in the 1980s, and one in 2000.
That is a lot of cardiac trauma for any person to endure, but in Cheney's case his resilience may be as much a result of getting top-flight, personalized medical care 24/7 as it is benefiting from advances in heart treatment and his own lifestyle change....

...."He's had high-quality medical care and insurance, probably through most of his life," said Dr. Albert Wu at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. "That's probably Cheney's largest advantage.";;;

...Cheney's medical support has been similarly -- if not more - intensive than that of other former American leaders. "I've got a doc with me 24 hours a day who watches me very carefully. There's one outside there now," he said in 2003. "He's part of the entourage that supports me."...

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/dick-cheney-cardiac-miracle-or-quality-medical-care/19370284


So there's what money can get you.