Clinton checks in for heart bypass surgery

The former president has blockage in multiple arteries and will have surgery early next week.

NEW YORK - Bill Clinton was hospitalized with chest pains and shortness of breath Friday and will undergo heart bypass surgery in an operation that could sideline the former president at the height of the campaign for the White House.

An angiogram showed that Clinton, who turned 58 two weeks ago, had significant blockage in multiple heart arteries but did not suffer a heart attack, a doctor who performed the test told the Associated Press.

Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said Friday evening that the former president would have surgery early next week and that no further information about his condition would be released until the operation is finished. No details of the surgery, including who would perform it, were disclosed.

"I wanted to report to you that my husband is doing very well," she said outside New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, where the former president is being treated. "He's in great humor. He's beating all of us at cards and the rest of the games we're playing."

The procedure is invasive, requiring several days of hospitalization afterward, but in the vast majority of cases allows a return to full activity within a month, experts said.

Clinton's health scare - a surprise for a man who had been declared in good health after years of intensive annual physicals in his White House years and afterward - may have political implications. He has been relishing the prospect of hitting the campaign trail on behalf of Democratic nominee John Kerry and other candidates this fall.

He told Democratic National Committee chairman Terence McAuliffe, Clinton's close friend, he still plans to do that. "He told me he's raring to go," said McAuliffe, who added that he began his phone conversation by observing that Clinton seemed to be taking extreme measures to cut into publicity over this week's Republican National Convention. "He's laughing and in great spirits."

Mrs. Clinton heard the news about his coronary disease while in Syracuse. The former president on Thursday went on his own initiative to Westchester Medical Center, near their Chappaqua home.

He returned to his house on Thursday night, then went back to the same facility Friday morning for an angiogram, in which a dye is inserted into the bloodstream, allowing physicians to capture an image of the blockage.

"We talked through the day and he said he felt fine and not to worry," said Mrs. Clinton.

After specialists saw the extent of the blockage, Clinton and his Secret Service retinue checked into New York-Presbyterian, a few miles from his Harlem office. He he was joined later in the day by Mrs. Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, 24.

Clinton spent part of the morning telephoning friends and national Democratic Party leaders, informing them of his hospitalization and impending surgery.

Before his diagnosis, Clinton had planned to fly to Syracuse to join his wife at the New York State fair. Instead, she canceled her appearances.

During his two terms as president, Clinton was an avid jogger also known for his love of fast food. But in January of this year, Clinton said he had cut out junk food after going on a modified version of the South Beach Diet and starting a workout regimen. He has long struggled with a weight problem, but had recently appeared much leaner.

He passed a stress test at a recent physical designed to catch heart problems, McAuliffe said. An angiogram, which might have revealed the blockage earlier, would not ordinarily be performed even in a presidential checkup without some other symptoms suggesting it was warranted, heart experts said.

In 60 to 70 percent of patients with blockage, less invasive treatments such as angioplasty, in which a clogged artery is opened by inserting a balloon, are indicated, according to according to Valentin Fuster, director of the cardiovascular institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

The 6-foot-2 president has remained an active political presence since he left the White House in 2001, whether quietly stopping by his Harlem office or drawing a standing ovation for a rousing speech to Democrats at their July convention in Boston. Most recently, he was on the road plugging his memoirs, My Life.

Clinton had a cancerous growth removed from his back shortly after leaving office. In 1996, he had a precancerous lesion removed from his nose and a year before that had a benign cyst taken off his chest.

But otherwise, Clinton suffered only the usual problems that often accompany normal aging and a taste for junk food - periods of slightly elevated cholesterol and hearing loss. In 1997, he was fitted with hearing aids, and he also battled allergies.

Both President Bush and Kerry offered Clinton their best wishes Friday.

"We just received news that President Clinton has been hospitalized in New York," Bush said as a hush fell over an otherwise raucous crowd in West Allis, Wis. "He is in our thoughts and prayers. We send him our best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery."

Bush also called Clinton from Air Force One to wish him well, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.

Kerry began a rally in Newark, Ohio, Friday afternoon by telling the thousands gathered on the courthouse lawn that Clinton was in the hospital and was likely to have bypass surgery.

"Every single one of us wants to extend to him our best wishes, our prayers and our thoughts. I want you all to let a cheer out . . . that he can hear all the way to New York."

With that, the crowd broke into extended whoops and applause.

Clinton, who delivered a major speech at the July convention that nominated Kerry, had been expected to play a significant role in the campaign, raising money for the Democratic Party and helping turn out voters on Election Day.

Assuming the surgery is successful, Clinton almost certainly will be able to perform some of the chores that he has carried out in recent years on behalf of fellow Democrats.

For example, he has recorded messages for automated telephone calls that have gone to millions of Democratic voters in the days leading up to elections.

He also could make campaign commercials, sign fundraising appeals and possibly even begin personal appearances in the final weeks leading up to the Nov. 2 vote.

His effectiveness in turning out voters on Election Day actually could be heightened, some Democrats said, by the publicity and the drama that would surround his return to the political trail after major surgery.

Information from the Associated Press, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

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