Dick Cheney working on book about heart treatment

Published: December 3, 2012 Comment on this article

photo - FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2011, file photo former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the third annual Washington Ideas Forum in Washington. Cheney is working on a book about his battles with heart disease and the revolutionary changes in treatment that helped keep him alive. The 71-year-old Cheney is collaborating with his cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, and with his daughter, Liz Cheney. Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, that the book is scheduled for next fall. It is currently untitled. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2011, file photo former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the third annual Washington Ideas Forum in Washington. Cheney is working on a book about his battles with heart disease and the revolutionary changes in treatment that helped keep him alive. The 71-year-old Cheney is collaborating with his cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, and with his daughter, Liz Cheney. Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, that the book is scheduled for next fall. It is currently untitled. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

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As he wrote in "In My Time," Cheney was just 37 and running for Congress when he had his first heart attack, in 1978. Over the next 30 years, he had four more heart attacks, including one soon after Election Day in 2000 that required a stent to be inserted. In 2010, a year after he and President Bush left office, he had a battery-powered device installed to help his heart pump blood.

Cheney noted Monday that the procedures he had undergone were crucial steps ahead from the days when he was simply advised to quit smoking.

The former Vice President said that his current condition was "nothing short of a miracle." Two years ago, he was in "end-state heart failure." Now, "I'm better than I've been in years," well enough to indulge his beloved pastime of fly fishing.

"I spent a lot of time on the river this summer," he said, "and enjoying the finer things in life."

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