On July 28th, Vice President Dick Cheney suffered a cardiac arrhythmia leading to cardiac arrest.  It was planned and premeditated.  After the Vice President’s heart stopped, it either started on its own or was paced back into normal sinus rhythm.

         And you didn’t read about it.  And you likely did not see it on any TV news program.

         President Bush’s colonoscopy was reported worldwide, as was Vice President Cheney’s taking over as chief of state while polyps were removed from the President’s colon.  Yet the “minor procedure” the Vice President underwent was no “replacement of a battery” of his “pacemaker,” as reported in most of the world’s media.  It was the surgical replacement of an implanted cardiac cardioverter-defibrillator.  The ICD is not a “pacemaker,” though it can act as one.  An ICD is there to shock the heart out of fatal arrhythmias.

         If it doesn’t work, you die.

         Which is what happened to many if not most people with ventricular tachycardia and similar arrhythmias before ICD devices appeared.  Now there are a half million survivors with ICDs in their chests.   One of them is Jon Duffey, a journalist who runs the largest online support service for ICD and other arrhythmia patients at ZapLife.org. Duffey tried to have other journalists get the story right, with little success.

         What presumably happened to the Vice President is what happens to most people who have their ICD replaced.  The patient is given a potentially fatal arrhythmia.  If the machine functions properly, the heart is shocked with a strong electrical jolt.  The heart stops.  Then the ICD immediately induces normal sinus rhythm if the heart does not start beating on its own.

         One obvious issue is why no major media outlet pointed out the inherent danger in the Vice President’s surgical reimplantation almost immediately after so much ink was spilled about the President’s truly routine colonoscopy.  Asked later why the Vice President’s cardiac arrest was not reported, an Associated Press manager in Washington suggested the reporter might not have “considered it germane” to the story.

         He also blamed the earlier mistake (wrongly reporting Cheney’s implanted device as a pacemaker instead of an ICD) on passing along the material in a White House press release without seeking verification.

         Thus, factual errors continue being retransmitted by AP clients – a majority of the nation’s newspapers, and the network and cable news operations as well as broadcast stations.

         An even more important issue, not adequately addressed by the media: The state of the Vice President’s health, and its impact on national policy.

         Mr. Cheney is an ill man.  He has had four heart attacks.  He has had a quadruple bypass and numerous other procedures to clear his heart arteries.  In 2005 he had major surgery to remove blood clots around his knees.  In 2007 he developed a blood clot in his legs, and has been on anti-coagulation therapy.

         Of what kind?  How successfully? To what extent does he suffer from heart failure? The public doesn’t know. 

         Doctors worry a lot about venous thromboses - clots in the legs.  Often the clot breaks off and goes somewhere it shouldn’t, like the brain, where it causes a stroke.  Sometimes the strokes are quite small.  It’s estimated only about a fifth of strokes show up with present imaging technology.

         You find out about the others on the autopsy table.

         Many politicians with severe, life-threatening illnesses courageously soldier on.  Ronald Reagan was often near death after he was shot by John Hinckley.  Boris Yeltsin remained president of Russia despite severe heart failure.

         Recently, however, the Vice President’s actions have appeared to even seasoned Beltway interlocutors as a bit odd.  When told by the National Archives that he must legally place his official papers where future historians could study them, Cheney asked who was making that decision.   The Oversight Committee for the National Archives, he was told.  “We’ll, let’s abolish the committee,” Cheney reportedly said.

         Next, the stout defender of executive privilege declared his office   now was part of the legislative branch, and would not have to respond to Congressional questions about foreign policy.  The Vice President was suddenly, as a self-declared member of both the executive and legislative branches, beholden to no one.

         Many consider these “above the law” statements entirely consistent positions for the Vice President, whose expansive view of presidential power has had much to do with Iraq, torture, and warrantless wire tapping of Americans.  Yet the question must be asked: Were these recent declarations, quickly disavowed by the White House, in any way related to the Vice President’s health?

         Don’t expect to hear those questions from the White House Press corps.  The same group that did not ask detailed questions about invading Iraq, finding Osama bin Laden, or data mining the telephone records of millions of Americans is not about to ask probing questions about the Vice President’s health.

         Perhaps they don’t expect any answer.  The Vice President is famous for his secrecy.

         But the fate of nations, and this nation, depends on the health of its leaders.  President Bush has worked hard to be a national example of healthiness. He exercises regularly, tries hard to keep his weight and waistline in line, and takes time to rest.   The job he does is infinitely stressful.  He needs the best health he can get, and seems to work very hard to obtain it.

         Yet the health of the Vice President, one of the most important men on the planet, is not fully reported.  After all these years, is the media still accepting press releases as the truth?  Are they really more than typists?

         There’s another important leader who has kept much of the world in the dark about his health.  But Fidel Castro is president of Cuba.

         Things like that don’t happen here. 

Dr. Matthew Edlund, M.D., M.O.H., director of The Center for Circadian Medicine, is an expert on applied public health, sleep medicine and psychiatry. A former professor at Brown and University of Texas medical schools, he can be reached via email to DocME@DoctorEdlund.com. And CLICK HERE to subscribe to our new Fitcast, via the iTunes Store.