V.P. Cheney's Personal Doctor Battling Addiction July 7, 2004
News Summary
Gary Malakoff, M.D., of George Washington University Medical Center, the personal doctor to Vice President Dick Cheney, has been battling an addiction to prescription drugs. Malakoff was recently dropped from Cheney's medical team, the New York Times reported July 5.Officials at the hospital where Malakoff practiced acknowledged that they knew of the addiction problem as early as 1999. Malakoff has treated Cheney since 1995. The doctor informed Cheney around 1999-2000 about his addiction problem. He was allowed to continue working while undergoing treatment and submitting to urine tests.
"[Malakoff has] been in a program from very early on, a monitored program," said Cheney's cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. "He has not treated the vice president at any time -- or any patient -- when the committee monitoring him has felt that he should not be working. And he has not withheld this information from the vice president."
Malakoff had been the spokesman regarding the vice president's health. In 2000, Malakoff had said the vice president was "up to the task of the most sensitive public office" despite a history of heart disease. Since Malakoff pronounced Cheney "in excellent health," the vice president has suffered four heart attacks.
This May, an independent board found that Malakoff was too impaired to care for patients. He is on leave until September from the medical center's general internal-medicine division.
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