Keeping it focused just on asia. So not in that sense Franklin Roosevelt made a big difference. In their book heart former Vice President dick cheney and his longtime cardiologist Jonathan Reiner talk about his long history with Heart Disease and advances in cardiology in the past decades. He had a heart transplant in 2012. The two discuss their book for about an hour next on book tv. Tonights program will consist of an interview conducted by Margaret Cochran president of the National PressClub Journalist institute and the hurley chair in Public Affairs journalism at the Missouri School of journalism. With mr. Cheney and dr. Reiner followed by a brief q a. We invite you to purchase a book if you havent already done so. Each of the books have been presigned, have the presigned plate so you get a signed copy. There wont be a book signing tonight. As long as he has served at the highest levels of business and government Vice PresidentCheney Cheney dick cheney has been one of the worlds most prominent for the First Time Ever cheney together with his longtime cardiologist Jonathan Reiner m. D. Chairs shares a personal story of this 35 year battle with Heart Disease from his first heart attack in 1978 and a heart transplant he received in 2012. Part of the book has been described as riveting, singular memoir with doctor impatient. Like no u. S. Politician has before him cheney opens up about his Health Troubles sharing never before told stories about the challenges he faced during the perilous time in our nations history. Dr. Reiner provides his perspective on cheneys case and also gives readers a glimpse into his own education is a doctor in the history of our understanding of the human heart. The book heart stances on optimistic book that will give you hope and millions of americans affected by hard disease. Ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming mr. Cheney and dr. Reiner. [applause] welcome gentlemen and as joe said you have written a fascinating book. The method you chose is a little unusual. You each right part of every air mr. Vice president you describe your personal experience and a are reiner you give your perspective as dr. Cheneys cardiologist and also the history of change innovation and part of that care. This is the formula that works so well in the book i thought we would use it for this evening. Mr. Vice president your heart Health History is amazing and im sure everyone is so pleased to see you here and looking so well tonight and after they learned everything that you had been through felt even more amazed. You have had five heart attacks, numerous catheterizations quadruple bypass surgery, implantation of stems and a defibrillator and a heart pump and then 20 months ago you received a heart transplant. Through it all you held some of the most highpowered jobs and dealt with some of the most stressful situations imaginable. So going back to your first heart attack which happened to you at the age of 37 during your First Campaign for congress, what are the lessons you have learned from your experience that you would like to share with others . Well, its sort of what the book is about in the sense of what we try to do is to use my case to talk about those developments most of which had occurred when i had a heart attack. So its a hope a message of hope and optimism and the phenomenal innovative capabilities of american medicine. The treatment i had in 1978 when i had my first heart attack wasnt much different than what Dwight Eisenhower had gotten 20 years before when he had a major heart attack. I guess to mention lessons a couple of things come to mind from a personal stamp point. One is when i had the first heart attack in the First Campaign i asked my doctor a man named rick davis and in turn asked, i said does this mean i have to give up the campaign in his response was a little hard work wont kill anybody. That is not exactly conventional wisdom and i say that next to john here but he also said that stress comes from spending your life doing something you dont want to do and he said if you feel up to it and something you want to do, do it. I sort of lived by that and i think that was an important lesson. I also very early on realized that you never hesitate great if you think you might be having a heart attack if you dont get your fanny to that emergency room and unfortunately a lot of people put it off and say well maybe tomorrow or maybe its indigestion or i will check it next week. When i had the first heart attack the only sensation i had was numbness in these two fingers and the only reason i checked into the hospital that night was my first cousin had had it that heart attack a few weeks before. The lesson i took away from that one second of the hospital and sat down on the examining table and passed out. If when in doubt check it out. If you dont you are a fool. Thats his lenses i can be about it but that saved my life on more than one occasion. And i had a series of small attacks over period of years. I never had what i would call a major attack. The problem of course were cumulative and the damage was significant. Finally the lesson that the book is about, but he wonders of modern american medicine in spite of all the debate we are having over obama carried Everything Else and its not a political look. The fact of the matter is we have the best Health Care System in the world. It may not be perfect and there are things people can find that they would like to fix but do not underestimate the enormous talent and creativity encourages john says and persistence of those people who have given us the kind of system to save my life and allowed me to go forward to have a full and complete career by anybodys standards even though i was for 35 years a hard patient. Thank you and that leads perfectly to the question i want to ask dr. Reiner which is the right in the book that for many years the new developments in cardiac care seems to arrive just in the ninth of time to help mr. Cheney. Can you talk a little bit about what some of those advances were . I told the Vice President at the beginning of this project that its like you are driving down the road early in the morning, maybe early on a sunday morning and theres very little traffic on the road. The lights ahead if you stretch out red but just as you reach the lights each light turns green. It struck me that was really a perfect metaphor for the Vice President s medical history. Seemingly every time he had a medical event that might turn his light read and stop his career or stop his life medicine had an answer for it and when you look at the Vice President s life, the Vice President did and just survived these events. Seemingly every time he had an event he took on the job of responsibility. He had his first heart attack in 1978 and became a member of congress and had another heart attack in eight 1984 and ascended leadership in the republican party. He had another art attack and bypass surgery in the late 80s and became secretary of defense obviously 12 years ago became the Vice President of the United States so there was a medical answer and the Vice President use that medical advances to not just survive but to thrive. When we were writing the book we wanted to write it look which was less medical memoir but really a book that offered people with Heart Disease hope and impart to understand what we can do. I had a phonecall last week with a patient i hadnt seen in 10 years and this was the best call from anyone i have had about the look. I had known this man for a long time. He moved out of town and called and said hey john i read your book, i am dick cheney. He had multiple heart attacks than he had Heart Failure and he thanked us for writing the book because it helps them understand where he was and what it did and they gave him hope and that was her goal for this project. We are going to go through the dramatic story that you tell mr. Vice president when you had from 1988 when you had ipath surgery until 2000 you experienced no heart related crises of any kind and then in 2000 george w. Bush asked you to vet possible Vice President president ial candidates and offered me the job. What were your concerns as related to your health and how did you address them . In addition to the quadruple bypass the other thing that was magical in terms of my case in the summer of 1988 was the cholesterol lowering drugs statins. Late 1988 was one i won on them. Between those two things cholesterol lowering drugs and bypass when i was nominated to be secretary of rensin was asked questions dr. Johns predecessor originally referred me to john was able to write to the Armed Services committee that we have dealt with my cholesterol problem and also the blockage of the arteries and so forth. There wasnt any reason i couldnt take on the most significant responsibilities and that was true for the next 12 years. When we got to 2000 the first time i was approached about the Vice President i said no way. I had a great job in 25 years in public life. I thought about running for president myself in the 90s and decided not to do that. I was going to go off and enjoy business. The Vice President was not a job i aspire to in my political career was over. You were a dubious man about the job. Im going to being too definitive but id didnt want to be Vice President so i said no and he asked me if i would find someone. I figured out eventually he never except that anyone. He knew what he wanted and eventually got it and im glad he asked and was proud to serve in glad i did serve trade it was unique experience from my perspective and the opportunity to be Vice President of the United States, health did enter into it. Once he said look you are the solution to my problem i said im going to set myself to you because i have been fed a everybody else. You have to look at my situation front and center. I said look, a twinge in the middle of the Vice President to debate i am out of there. I went to the emergency room to get it checked out. I made it clear that was a potential. He needed to satisfy himself that there was no reason why couldnt serve. That in turn led to consultations between john who is that in my dock and then who was advising then governor bush. They talk to each other and the governor talks talked to dr. Coolly and concluded that there was no reason why i couldnt serve. I didnt make it through the eight years. Three you actually figured out that he was going to become Vice President or the Vice President nominee before was announced. How did that happen and what are your thoughts because you had been his chief cardiologist for only two years. Im at the Vice President initially when i was a fellow. My mentor alan ross had been the Vice President s doctor for many years and i met the Vice President when i was still a trainee and when al ross retired was in the Vice President s care. In late june 2000 the Vice President called our office and wanted an appointment to be seen but wanted a stress test. You know, the Vice President , the Vice President ial sweepstakes is as they say in the book and obsession in this town. At the time i think the smart money was on tom ridge. I went to talk to the Vice President in turn is then asked him is if cheney okay . He goes yeah his heart looks great. I said he wants a stress test. I think hes going to run for Vice President. A lot of political reporters needed to be talking to you then. Someone asked me for a stress test who is otherwise feeling well at that time in the political history of this country just stood out. The Vice President had a stress test and a week later, he said it looks like im going to be asked to run for Vice President. Its one of those moments where you have to suppress whats happening inside of your head and say oh really . [laughter] you are the third person today that has said that to me. But he happened to be right. Fastforward to the election, the famous elections that seem to go on forever while the votes were being counted. On november 22, you began experiencing some difficulty following your own rule you said i need to go check this out. That turned out to be your third heart attack. It was the fourth by then. A couple of other things happened in the intervening couple of months right after the inoculation and so on. You made a decision in march. Tell us about that decision and what you did and why you did it. I was concerned. The genesis of that was i asked david to review all of the statutes of the constitution and any provision that i needed to know about in order to get ready to become president and do the transition. That was my main job to be ready i wanted to make certain i knew absolutely every single possibility. What david pointed out was while the 25th amendment makes it impossible to replace a president who is still alive but maybe maybe had a stroke in his second term the Vice President under the 25th amendment by a majority vote the cabinet and the Vice President can set aside president and the Vice President comes the president. There is no provision and we were concerned for example if i were to have a stroke or a serious heart attack and im still alive and still in the office but unable to function that creates problems. It becomes almost impossible to execute the 25th amendment because the Vice President is not capable of making that kind of decision. If something should happen to the president and you have a very weak president that succeeds to the top office and theres simply no way to remove in the capacity of the 25th amendment provides a way to replace it once its gone. What i did with david was i wrote a letter of resignation in the same form that any president or Vice President for constitutional officer would write to resign the post and address the secretary of state like when nixon said when he resigned the presidency. I hereby resign the vice presidency today effective and then gave it to david and told him to hang onto it. If the need ever arose and i was no longer able to function as Vice President i wanted him to present that to the president and the president would have the ability. All he would have to do is submit it to the date. If he didnt want to do that fine but he had the choice. Nobody else would. They were the only two knowledgeable. The other sideline was david didnt keep it in the office. He was worried something would happen and he wouldnt be able to get back into the white house for some reason. You didnt know this was in the book. He got his wife and kids out of many went back in and got the family papers in my letter of resignation. I never had to execute it but i felt it was something i needed to do. Dr. An american medical odyssey review all of a sudden found herself working with something called the white house medical unit and i found this to be one of the more fascinating things that you really went into. First of all its very unusual for mr. Cheney as Vice President to continue to see you as a cardiologist. Can you talk a little bit about that arrangement and how you worked with the white house medical unit and what they do . I think that is one of the lessons. I think theres a lot of value in the continuity of care. Regardless of how one feels about Current Issues with the Affordable Care act. There is tremendous value in having a physician follow you for many years and with a Vice President with 35 years of Heart Disease he is only had to cardiologist take care of him, a very important longitudinal relationship. The white house has a fulltime now quite large and in fact i was just over there today group of doc ayers and nurses and assistance whose primary mission is to take care of the president and the Vice President and the families. Its grown in size and it takes on more than just the urgent care Family Doctor role which we talk about in the book in the aftermath of 9 11. The white house was concerned about bioterrorism and a lot of concerns for the safety of the president and Vice President not just from Natural Hazards that manmade weaponized pathogens. So there