He underwent a quadruple bypass operation in 1988 to shift blood around arterial blockages. Last week, chest pains put him in the hospital for cardiac catheterization to reopen narrowed arteries. In the armed forces, Cheney, who acknowledges that he carries a few extra pounds, probably would have been forced to retire long ago, though there have been senior officers who suffered heart attacks and remained on active duty. If there was permanent heart damage that prevented the soldier from performing up to standards, the soldier would be medically discharged. Standards for females are only slightly less arduous.
Corporate culture has no universal rulebook for handling heart attacks in the executive suites.
John Welch, chairman of General Electric Co., had quintuple bypass heart surgery in 1995. He's still on the job. Same for Michael D. Eisner, chairman of the Walt Disney Co., who had heart surgery in 1994. And Roberto Goizueta, who led Coca-Cola for 16 years, remained on the job until he died in 1997 of lung cancer. That Reginald F. Lewis, chairman of TLC Beatrice International, suffered from cancer was not revealed until the day before he died in January 1993.