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CNN Live At Daybreak

Pretzel Causes Bush Fainting Spell

Aired January 14, 2002 - 05:01   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now for more on the president's brief fainting spell. He's still scheduled to fly to the Midwest today after receiving a follow-up examination after that fainting spell.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve has more from Washington.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Bush was watching the Dolphins-Ravens game on television in a bedroom of the White House residence and eating pretzels when he fainted. He fell off a couch and suffered a scrape to his cheek and also a bruise to his lower lip.

Tests were done on the president. They all came back normal. He is not on any medication at this point, although the president did tell his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, that he was feeling a little under the weather, felt like he had a bit of a bug.

The theory of White House doctors is that a pretzel may have pressed against a nerve and lowered the president's pulse rate, causing him to faint. They say he is now doing quite well. He had some soup and salad with the first lady and took his doctor's advice and went to bed early. Further tests will be done in the morning before a final decision is made on whether the president will travel to the Midwest as planned. Right now the plan is to go.

I'm Jeanne Meserve in Washington.

COSTELLO: I know what you're wondering. How could a pretzel do that? It must have been some pretzel, huh? As Jeanne just reported, the president's physicians said Mr. Bush suffered a temporary decrease in his heart rate while he was swallowing that pretzel.

CNN Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta called in with the some background on this incident.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You always have to be a little concerned about underlying cardiac things. They can be very, very mild and, again, I want to emphasize nothing that people have to worry about long-term.

But certainly even a small alteration in heart rate or the pattern of heartbeat, an arrhythmia, so to speak, can cause someone to faint if it interrupts the blood flow to the brain ever so briefly. These are the sorts of things that we see in hospitals quite a bit and they had mentioned that they would consider monitoring his heart to try and see if he has some underlying abnormality like that.

Again, not something that, you know, is difficult to treat if that's what it is, but certainly something that they will probably be monitoring.

COSTELLO: Now, if the president's Midwest trip goes ahead as planned, as is expected, we'll have live coverage of his speech in Moline, Illinois beginning around 11:00 a.m. Eastern time.

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