I swear, everytime there is new information about Dick Cheney and his health, the picture gets murkier. Yesterday, he had surgery on both knees, something we learned only after the procedures were complete:
Earlier, Stephen E. Schmidt, Mr. Cheney's chief spokesman, said doctors would operate only on the popliteal artery in the vice president's right knee. The change in plans was "an intraoperative decision," Mr. Schmidt said, meaning the doctors made the decision to also work on the left knee in the operating room.Apparently, doing the double surgery is a bit controversial in medical world:
Dr. Bernik, the St. Vincent's surgeon, said the decision to do both repairs on the same day was "surprising and a little bit irresponsible, I must say." That is partly because the extra procedure could increase the risk of complications now or in the future, he said.Cheney isn't averse to taking risks with other people's lives. Since we never get the truth from the Bush/Cheney White House, something just seems fishy about the whole thing.
"You really never want to tackle both sides at once," Dr. Bernik said, "because even though things may go smoothly on one side, you can still run into a problem while you are doing the other side, or shortly thereafter, and then you really could have a big problem on your hands."
Most doctors in the field "would say that is not the best way to go, but, who knows, maybe Cheney said, 'I want to get this over with, and I'll take the added risks,' " Dr. Bernik said.
