Cheney heart attack is his 5th in 3 decades

February 24, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney is recovering from a “mild heart attack” — his latest bout in a long battle against heart disease.

Cheney was feeling fine Tuesday and likely would be sent home from a Washington hospital within a day or two, aides said. He experienced chest pain Monday, and lab results revealed evidence of the heart attack, spokesman Peter Long said.

“The whole family has been working with heart disease for decades, and they are vigilant and attuned to treatment,” said political consultant Mary Matalin, a friend and former counselor to Cheney.

She added that Cheney, now 69, “knows how to live with this disease” and is fortunate to have great doctors.

The news came just more than a week after Cheney and Vice President Joe Biden essentially dueled each other across different Sunday television talk shows, bickering over national security, credit for success in Iraq and Iran’s nuclear program. Even more recently, Cheney made a surprise appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, delighting the partisan crowd with statements such as, “I think Barack Obama is a one-term president.”

Biden called Cheney on Tuesday to wish him well, as did Cheney’s old boss, former President George W. Bush.

The heart attack is Cheney’s fifth since age 37. A heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart muscle is blocked.

After being admitted to George Washington University Hospital, Cheney underwent a stress test and a heart catheterization, according to a statement from his office. The statement did not say whether an angioplasty — a procedure to clear a blockage — was performed.

It is possible to have blockages in blood vessels too small to warrant that procedure.