ASHINGTON - The stranger-than-fiction presidential election took another unexpected turn yesterday, when Dick Cheney, the Republican vice presidential nominee, suffered a slight heart attack and underwent surgery.
Cheney, 59, who had three heart attacks before undergoing quadruple bypass surgery in 1988, had a cardiac catheterization at George Washington University Medical Center after he entered the hospital about 4:30 a.m. complaining of chest and shoulder pains.
''Everything's fine,'' Cheney said last night in a telephone interview from his hospital bed with CNN's Larry King. He said he hoped to be discharged from the hospital in ''a day or two.''
Asked whether the stress of the Florida balloting controversy over the past two weeks might have contributed to the heart attack, Cheney said his tenure at the Pentagon during the Gulf War ''was much more stressful.''
During the procedure, surgeons threaded a tube from his groin to his heart. After finding narrowing in the left anterior descending artery, they expanded it with a small balloon and inserted a scaffold-like mesh tube known as a stent to maintain the opening.
''He should be able to get back to normal functioning and normal activity within a few weeks at the very most,'' said Dr. Alan Wasserman, interim chairman of the hospital's Department of Medicine. ''He will have no limitations and should be able to go about whatever his job is in the next few weeks.''
Despite the reassurances, Cheney's history of heart trouble, his proximity to the presidency, and the uncertainty about whether Republican George W. Bush or Democrat Al Gore will become the president created a frenzy around the announcement. Over the course of the day, the vast media encampment outside the hospital received steadily evolving explanations from the Bush camp and Cheney's doctors.
In a statement issued at 8:52 a.m., campaign spokeswoman Karen Hughes said a heart test was normal and ''initial blood work shows that his cardiac enzymes are normal.''
About noon, Bush told reporters he had spoken with Cheney and was told he had not suffered a heart attack. Four times during a brief statement and question period about Tuesday's ruling in the Florida Supreme Court, Bush said Cheney sounded ''strong'' or ''really strong.' Bush did not mention that Cheney had undergone a surgical procedure.
Bush was also asked whether he had any misgivings, based on health concerns, about selecting Cheney, a former defense secretary, as his running mate.
''No, not at all,'' the Texas governor said. ''Secretary Cheney will make a great vice president.''
About 2:30 p.m., Wasserman repeatedly said that other than the narrowed artery, Cheney's heart showed no damage or changes since his last catheterization in 1996. He said Cheney had not suffered a heart attack, but revealed that a set of enzyme tests ''was minimally elevated.''
Independent heart specialists said elevated enzymes can show a heart muscle at risk, and about two hours later, Wasserman returned to a briefing room and said Cheney had, in fact, suffered a ''slight heart attack'' based on the second enzyme test. He said Cheney's enzyme levels ''had basically tapered off,'' but said he had to diagnose a heart attack because of a new definition of the term by the American Heart Association.
''Over a year ago, this amount of enzyme elevation would not have been considered, by most people, signs of a heart attack,'' Wasserman said.
Both Wasserman and Cheney's personal physician, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, said that it was unlikely that stress brought on Cheney's condition.
The timing of the incident came at a crucial time in the fight for the election.
Stuart Rothenberg, a Washington political analyst, doubted the news would have any lasting impact on Bush - as long as Cheney's condition does not worsen.
''If this had happened right before the election, it would have been much more of a problem. Now everything is so partisan, it is being overshadowed by the ballot fight,'' Rothenberg said.
Although the prospect seems remote, there is a provision in federal electoral law for replacement of a vice presidential candidate unable to serve.
A presidential candidate can replace a vice president-elect as long as he does so with the approval of his party and before the Electoral College meets in December. This election, that session is set for Dec. 18. Once the Electoral College votes on a new ticket, the Constitution requires Congress to confirm a new vice president if that office should become vacant.
The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, says a president must nominate a candidate who then must be confirmed by a majority of both the House and Senate. It has been invoked twice, first when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 and was replaced by Gerald Ford. It was used again the following year, when Ford became president after Richard Nixon's resignation, and the vice presidency was filled by Nelson Rockefeller.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
