president bush faints at white house

[Guest guest]

C

[Guest guest]

greetings,

 

would like to share the latest news from the white house. which

seem to support bush predictions on the list. but who would

ever thought of bread as a "trigger"?

 

a lowly twisted piece of salt sprinkled dough nearly changed

world history?????

 

no bullets, no revolution ...just bread.

 

the gods work in mysterious ways....indeed.

 

cant help to notice the symbolism of the incident too... ie dough

in american slang stands for money .

 

 

i am in awe (always),

 

peace and blessings to all of us,

sabine

 

 

 

RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent   Sunday,

January 13, 2002

Breaking News Sections

 

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(01-13) 19:59 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

 

President Bush fainted briefly in the White House residence

Sunday after choking on a pretzel while watching a National

Football League playoff game on television, White House

physician Dr. Richard Tubb said.

 

The doctor, an Air Force colonel, said Bush quickly recovered

and was doing well.

 

"He fainted due to a temporary decrease in heart rate brought on

by swallowing a pretzel," Tubb said. "I do not find any reason

that this would happen again."

 

Bush, 55, suffered an abrasion on his left cheek the size of a half

dollar and a bruise on his lower lip, apparently from falling onto

the floor from a couch. Bush said he had been feeling under the

weather Saturday and Sunday.

 

"He had not been feeling well the last couple of days," said Tubb,

although Bush had exercised rigorously Saturday and had a

lighter workout Sunday. Tubb said Bush has felt "a little off his

game," as if he was coming down with a head cold.

 

Bush plans to travel to the Midwest on Monday as planned, White

House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. The plan was for Tubb to

first give the president a quick checkup to make sure there was

no lingering effect from the fainting incident.

 

Tubb said the episode does not appear to be related to stress or

extra work brought on by Bush's duties as commander in chief

and the war in Afghanistan. This is the first health scare for Bush

as president.

 

Vice President Dick Cheney has suffered four heart attacks in 25

years and received a pacemaker in June.

 

The president fainted while alone in a room at the White House

residence, watching the Baltimore-Miami football game while his

wife, first lady Laura Bush, was in a nearby room on the

telephone.

 

"He said it (the pretzel) didn't seem to go down right," Tubb said

in a telephone interview arranged by Fleischer. "The next thing

he knew, he was on the floor."

 

A nurse on duty at the White House was summoned at 5:40 p.m.

EST. Tubb was paged eight minutes later. Bush, under his own

power, used an elevator to go downstairs to the doctor's office for

a complete exam.

 

Tubb said Bush believes he was out only for a few seconds

because when he awoke, his two dogs were sitting in the same

position they were when he lost consciousness.

 

"But the dogs were looking at him funny," Fleischer said.

 

Tubb said Bush's exam included the use of a heart monitor, and

nothing out of the normal was found. His blood pressure and

pulse were normal for Bush, Tubb said.

 

However, the doctor said Bush has a lower-than-normal pulse

rate, which doctors attribute to his rigorous workout regime. The

pretzel apparently stimulated a nerve, which further slowed his

heart rate, Tubb said. That, combined with feeling under the

weather, apparently caused the fainting spell, Tubb said.

 

The medical term for Bush's episode is vasovagal syncope, or

vasovagal fainting, Tubb said.

 

In such cases, the body sends a signal to the heart via the vagus

nerve that slows the heart rate enough to cause a brief fainting

spell. Among other things, the nerve can be stimulated by fear

and intestinal cramps.

 

It's very common, an emergency room physician said.

 

"It's thought that pretty much everybody has one simple faint in

their life. We see folks every day that have had a vasovagal

reaction," said Dr. David Skibbie of Inova Fairfax Hospital in

suburban Virginia. "It's alarming, but if everything checks out it's

fine and they can go home without any concerns about their

future health."

 

A vasovagal episode isn't the only possibility, Skibbie said.

Somewhat less common is cough syncope, where a coughing

episode -- similar to what Bush reportedly had -- can increase

pressure in the chest enough to momentarily lower blood

pressure. It, too, is benign. Both types of fainting actually can be

common among the physically fit because their blood pressure

and pulse already are at nice low rates, he noted.

 

Fainting spells can be brought on by a lack of oxygen caused by

choking, but Tubb said Bush's episode appeared be caused by

the stimulated nerve.

 

Bush is not taking any medicine as a result of the episode, the

doctor said. Tubb is awaiting results of the sugar levels in the

president's blood, but all other tests were complete and showed

normal results, he said.

 

Fleischer contacted reporters shortly after 8 p.m. EST with word

of the episode. "At this point, he intends to travel" Monday, the

spokesman said.

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EDITORS: AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to

this story