Doctors Baffled by DeLay's Missing Heart

When House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was hospitalized with heart problems last week, doctors believed they had a common case of arrhythmia, or irregular heart beat, on their hands. Instead, the Texas representative has been diagnosed with a highly unusual ailment known as 'antirrhythmia': the absence of a discernable heartbeat.

X-rays turn up no sign of missing organ; MRI scheduled

By Hermione Slatkin, Health Correspondent

WASHINGTON – When Texas representative Tom DeLay went to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. last week after experiencing what his office described as minor fatigue, cardiac specialists at the hospital believed they had a typical case of arrhythmia on their hands.

But a full battery of tests did not turn up the irregular heartbeat of which Mr. Delay has long complained. Instead, the House Majority Leader has been diagnosed with a highly unusual ailment known as 'antirrhythmia' in which the heart beat is not detectable to the human ear.

DeLay says he'll 'beat' condition
With no known treatment for the rare condition, the hospital elected to discharge Mr. DeLay so that he could rest at home. Despite the health set back, the congressman planned to push a head with a packed itinerary of speaking and fundraising over the weekend, traveling to Florida to address the Club for Growth, a conservative political organization, before heading to Georgia to raise money for Republican Representative Phil Gingrey.

"We told him he could go about his regular schedule, said Rear Admiral Arthur MacDonald, a member of the hospital's department of cardiology. "He can continue to fundraise as long as he doesn't over do it and go overboard."

Docs checked the right side first
When doctors first encountered the missing heartbeat, their initial diagnosis was that Mr. DeLay suffered from an unusual—but not unheard of—condition known as Dextrocardia with Situs Inversus in which internal organs develop on the right side rather than the left side of the body. Approximately one in 8,000 babies is born in the US each year with the genetic condition.

While the condition may lead to problems with organ function, it is not necessarily a death sentence. Mr. DeLay would have been the first known legislator to have been diagnosed with Dextrocardia with Situs Inversus.

Absence of heart shouldn't affect 'Hammer'
Doctors at the Bethesda hospital say that they haven't abandoned efforts to locate the congressman's heartbeat, noting that Mr. DeLay will be readmitted this week for an extensive battery of tests, including an EKG and an MRI, either of which could detect the missing organ.

In the meantime, however, the cardiac specialists say that they don't expect the absence of a heartbeat to have a noticeable impact on the former exterminator's job performance. "You wouldn't know to look at him that he suffers from antirrhythmia," says Rear Admiral MacDonald. "I expect that he'll continue to play the same role in his party and on Capitol Hill that he's been playing for the past 20 years."

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