Bush Hospitalized for Treatment of Rapid Heartbeat : Presidency: He suffers a shortness of breath while jogging at Camp David. His spokesman says that he is in stable condition and ‘ready to get back in the game.’

WASHINGTON — President Bush was hospitalized Saturday for treatment of an abnormal heart rhythm after complaining of shortness of breath and fatigue while jogging at Camp David, the White House said. A spokesman reported that Bush was “in good spirits and ready to get back in the game.”

The President, who will be 67 years old next month, was flown by Marine Corps helicopter from the mountaintop presidential retreat in northern Maryland to Bethesda Naval Medical Center, where he was scheduled to spend the night and undergo further observation.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that Bush was being treated for “atrial fibrillation,” an abnormally rapid heartbeat that typically occurs in people over 60.

“There are no indications at this time that he had a heart attack,” Fitzwater said.

Bush was being given the drug digoxin, which is used to restore a normal heart rhythm and has no known side effects. He will continue using the medication for several weeks, Fitzwater said. The spokesman said it would not be determined until this morning whether the medication is having the desired effect.

He said that no consideration had been given to transferring presidential power to Vice President Dan Quayle, and that at no time did Bush lose consciousness. “He was always alert and talking,” Fitzwater said.

Bush is expected to leave the hospital this morning.

“I’m feeling great, hope to go back to Camp David, have to see how that goes tomorrow,” Bush said in a telephone conversation, Fitzwater said, adding that the President asked him: “Marlin, see if you can get me a two-week vacation out of this, will you?”

The spokesman said that Bush was “in great spirits, wants to get on about his business, thinks it’s a lot of hoopla about nothing.” He also said doctors did not expect to put any restraints on Bush’s physical activities.

While the White House did its best to play down the seriousness of the incident, it is certain to raise questions about Bush’s health and stamina as he prepares for next year’s reelection campaign. It also focuses renewed attention on his 1992 running mate. Quayle is considered by many observers to be a potential political liability to the President, who said more than a year ago that he would not change running mates if he seeks reelection in 1992.

If he runs again, as is expected, and is returned to the White House, Bush would be 72 years old at the end of the next presidential term.

Fitzwater said that Bush underwent an electrocardiogram and ultrasound examination upon his arrival at Bethesda. The electrocardiogram showed “no abnormalities except the irregular heart rhythm,” Fitzwater said, and the ultrasound procedure “showed no structural abnormalities and normal heart function.”

The overall examination lasted about an hour, Fitzwater said. He added that reports from other tests would not be immediately available.

Bush had left the White House at 8:30 a.m. EDT Saturday for Ann Arbor, Mich., where he delivered a commencement address at the University of Michigan. He spoke at length and then flew to Camp David. He had been there slightly more than two hours when he was stricken.

“At approximately 4:20 p.m., while jogging at Camp David, President Bush suffered a shortage of breath. He was taken to the Camp David medical facility and examined by Dr. Michael Nash, one of the President’s physicians, and was determined to have an atrial fibrillation,” the White House said in a statement read by John Herrick, a spokesman.

Herrick said that the President left Camp David at 5:38 p.m., and arrived at the Bethesda medical center at 5:58 p.m. The flight to Bethesda was delayed because Bush was given diagnostic tests at the Camp David infirmary, Fitzwater said.

First Lady Barbara Bush and Nash, an Air Force major, accompanied Bush in the large green and white helicopter, Fitzwater said, and the President walked into the hospital unassisted.

Nash, Dr. Lawrence Mohr, an Army colonel, and Dr. John A. Williams III, a Navy lieutenant commander, examined Bush at the hospital. Williams is a staff cardiologist at Bethesda, and Mohr and Nash are on the President’s White House medical staff.

White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, who eventually visited Bush in the hospital, notified Quayle and Brent Scowcroft, the President’s national security adviser, about Bush’s condition before the President left Camp David. Quayle was at home in the vice presidential mansion about two miles from the White House at the time, said Quayle’s spokesman, David Beckwith.

Sununu had been in Florida earlier in the day to deliver a commencement address but had returned to Washington before the incident occurred.

The vice presidential spokesman said that Quayle was keeping to his previously arranged schedule, which included a reception at his home Saturday evening for the National Space Society and church with his family this morning.

Fitzwater, who spoke to reporters about 8:30 p.m. Washington time, said that Bush was “relaxed, comfortable and having dinner in his room with Mrs. Bush.” Dinner was steak, salad, mixed vegetables and skim milk.

Fitzwater said that Bush had reported feeling “unusual fatigue” during his run on a winding, wooded path. He complained to the Secret Service agents who accompanied him and suggested to them that he should be examined. The President then walked a few hundred yards to the Camp David infirmary, the spokesman said.

“He didn’t fall down or sit down. He just stopped (running) and walked over to the infirmary,” Fitzwater said.

Bush apparently watched a live television broadcast of Fitzwater’s press briefing.

When Fitzwater told reporters that he did not know how long the President had been exercising when he began feeling fatigued, the President sent word within minutes that he had been jogging and walking for 35 to 40 minutes. That would be 15 or 20 minutes longer than is typical for him.

Dr. Benjamin L. Aaron, a cardiologist who treated President Ronald Reagan 10 years ago at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington after Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt, said that atrial fibrillation “can occur spontaneously or during periods of stress or when there are anxieties.”

It is “temporary and easily treated,” he said.

Aaron said that the rapid heartbeat can cause shortness of breath, the symptom that Bush reported to his doctor. It is common, when it occurs, to treat the patient in a hospital unless the condition resolves itself quickly.

Dr. George Bren, another cardiologist at George Washington University, said that the condition can be the result of an underlying heart abnormality but that it also can occur in perfectly normal, healthy people of any age or gender.

“In some people, atrial fibrillation is a recurrent, chronic condition--there are many, many people who are walking around with atrial fibrillation all the time, and they can live for years and years,” Bren said. “If you go into an emergency room, you’ll find at least one person a day in there with it. It’s a very common condition.”

Bush, who underwent an annual physical examination on March 27, was reported at the time to be in “excellent” health, although he has been bothered at times by mild arthritis. He underwent X-rays, an electrocardiogram, a full series of blood tests, a stress test and other procedures during a six-hour visit to the Bethesda hospital.

Fitzwater said that Bush had experienced no previous such heart episodes.

The President generally maintains a hectic pace. He originally planned to remain at Camp David until Monday morning, rising early enough to fly back to Washington at 6:30 a.m. His travel schedule during his first two years saw him on the road about one day in three. In addition, he has placed himself at the center of nearly all White House operations, routinely showing up in the Oval Office at 7:15 a.m. and remaining there on and off for 11 hours. He keeps up a busy schedule of nonstop telephone calls, meetings and social engagements with friends in the evening and on weekends.

For exercise, he uses a stationary bicycle and “stair machine” that provide aerobic workouts and, less regularly, jogs about two miles in roughly 20 minutes--a respectable pace for a man his age. He plays horseshoes, golf and tennis, swims in the White House pools and goes fishing.

At Camp David, he plays “walleyball,” a four-walled version of volleyball played on a racquetball court.

In addition, a basketball court was recently installed on the White House grounds, and early one morning last week Bush presided over the Second Annual Great American Workout at the White House with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Bush’s eating habits appear less healthy than his exercise routine. On Thursday evening, for example, he downed a dinner of steak, cottage fried potatoes, french fried onions and creamed spinach while visiting a Washington restaurant. During the 1988 presidential campaign, he demonstrated a fondness for pork rinds.

Fitzwater said that Quayle called Bush at 7:20 p.m. and that the vice president found the President “in excellent spirits.”

The press secretary said that Bush’s plans for the week--in which a busy schedule of visits from foreign leaders and a trip to New Jersey are on the agenda--remain unchanged. He said that before leaving Camp David the President instructed an aide to put his briefcase on the helicopter so he could complete some paperwork on the trip to Bethesda and at the hospital.

Fitzwater said that Mrs. Bush would spend Saturday night with her husband in the two-room suite--a bedroom and sitting room reserved for him at the Navy facility. He said that the President did not go to the hospital’s intensive care unit when he arrived.

Staff writers James Risen and Marlene Cimons contributed to this story.