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CNN Sunday Morning

Heart Patients Find Hope in Electric Assistance

Aired July 01, 2001 - 08:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: While Dick Cheney's recent heart problems may have caused palpitations in the Bush White House, the vice president and his doctors say his health is good.

CNN medical correspondent Rea Blakey has details on what life is like with that implant device, a device Mr. Cheney calls an insurance policy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REA BLAKEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Paul Lebowitz has had eight heart attacks and in 1994 got his first implantable defibrillator. In April of this year, he got a new device implanted. It's a type of defibrillator that works two ways, to shock an irregular beating heart back to normal rhythm or as a pacemaker to speed up a slowly beating heart. Leahy says this so-called pacemaker plus lets him live on borrowed time.

PAUL LEBOWITZ, HEART PATIENT: I can do the stairs with no fear of collapsing. I don't run up them or down them, but I can do them.

BLAKEY: It's the same type of device Vice President Cheney had implanted on Saturday.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, GWU HOSPITAL: In day-to-day life, patients with this device really face essentially, you know, no restrictions and really essentially no environmental hazards. Patients with these devices can use cell phones. That's not really an issue. They can go through airport security.

BLAKEY: It's important to note the implanted defibrillator doesn't necessarily prevent future heart attacks. Cheney has had four already. Lebowitz had several after his first defibrillator.

LEBOWITZ: It would not cure anything, but it would increase the quality of my life.

BLAKEY: And it has changed his lifestyle just a little.

LEBOWITZ: Or as my wife says I'm not dancing anymore. Of course I never did. But it's fine.

BLAKEY (on camera): As for the vice president, he's been advised to take it easy for the next few days. His doctors don't expect it will slow him down as he heads back to work Monday morning.

Rea Blakey, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: For more on Dick Cheney's health, log onto cnn.com/health for everything you want to know, including how old Cheney was when he first had a heart attack. That's at cnn.com/health.

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