President briefly faints after choking on pretzel
 |
|
||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON — President Bush briefly lost consciousness yesterday after he choked on a pretzel while watching a football game on television, the White House said.
After fainting, the president tumbled to the floor from a couch, bruising his lower lip and suffering an abrasion the size of a half-dollar on his left cheek, said the White House physician, Dr. Richard Tubb.
Tubb said Bush recovered quickly.
"I do not find any reason that this would happen again," Tubb told news agencies in an interview arranged by the White House. "He fainted due to a temporary decrease in heart rate brought on by swallowing a pretzel."
The president, 55, has been given one full physical exam since taking office. The White House reported after that exam in August that he was in good health.
Aides say he conscientiously adheres to an exercise regimen, working out on a treadmill in the White House residence and, while at his Texas ranch or Camp David, routinely racing through three-mile runs in 21 minutes.
The result of his aerobic workout routine has been a lower-than-normal resting pulse rate of between 35 and 45 beats per minute. A typical resting pulse rate is about 70 beats per minute.
Tubb said Bush's slower heart rate made him more prone to fainting when a nerve was stimulated by the pretzel caught in his throat.
Such fainting during a choking spell is a common and harmless event that does not signify underlying illness or have lasting effects, said Dr. Marshall Morgan, head of the emergency department at the University of California at Los Angeles.
"If food goes down the wrong pipe, the natural response is to cough," he said. "It is pretty common for people who are coughing to have a syncope" — a brief fainting spell.
The choking triggers what is called a vagal response, triggered by the vagus nerve, which passes through the throat. The irritation can cause a sudden drop in heart rate, which is restored when the person falls down.
Tubb said the fainting spell was not likely to have been triggered by either stress or the additional workload brought on by the war against terrorism.
The incident occurred while the president was alone watching the National Football League playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and the Baltimore Ravens, the White House said. His wife, Laura, was talking on the telephone in a nearby room.
"He said it (the pretzel) didn't seem to go down right," Tubb said. "The next thing he knew, he was on the floor."
Bush believed he blacked out for only a few seconds because as he revived, his two dogs were sitting in the same positions they had been before he lost consciousness, the doctor said.
"But the dogs were looking at him funny," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in a call to The Associated Press.
According to the White House, the president fainted about 2:35 p.m. Seattle time. About five minutes later, he contacted a nurse on duty at the White House; Tubb was summoned eight minutes later and hurried to the White House to examine the president.
The White House said Bush used an elevator to go from his residence on the second floor to the ground-floor doctor's office. The medical examination conducted there included the use of a heart monitor.
Tubb said the president's blood pressure and pulse were normal.