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Dick Cheney Drops Personal Physician

Vice President Dick Cheney has had the same personal physician since 1995. He's been dropped from Cheney's medical team due to his abuse of prescription drugs--which Cheney has known about since 2000. The New York Times reports:

Vice President Dick Cheney's personal doctor, who four years ago declared Mr. Cheney "up to the task of the most sensitive public office" despite a history of heart disease, was battling an addiction to prescription drugs at the time and has recently been dropped from the vice president's medical team, according to officials at the hospital where he practiced.

....The doctor, Gary Malakoff of George Washington University Medical Center, had treated Mr. Cheney since 1995 and been a prominent spokesman on the vice president's health....Hospital officials said Sunday that they had known since 1999 of Dr. Malakoff's problem, and that Dr. Malakoff informed the vice president at that time or in 2000. But he was permitted to continue working, they said, while undergoing treatment and monitoring, including urine tests, by an independent board....But in May, when the board concluded that Dr. Malakoff was too impaired to care for patients, he was relieved of his position as director of the medical center's general internal medicine division, they said.

....Mr. Cheney has suffered four heart attacks, most recently in November 2000, just months after Dr. Malakoff pronounced him "in excellent health.'' It was Mr. Cheney's first heart attack since 1988.

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