Reply #14: Here are some.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

MI = Myocardial Infarction = "Heart attack" (where some of the heart muscle dies from lack of blood supply)

EF = Ejection Fraction (What percentage of the blood in your heart is squeezed out with each beat. Normal healthy person should empty about 75% of the volume each time, below 50% is abnormally low.) As one of the posters indicated, it is possible for some even with really low EF like 15% to "recover" some function as that poster did.

CHF = Congestive Heart Failure = a chronic ailment caused by impaired pumping function of the heart leading to such problems as shortness of breath, swelling in the legs/fluid retention, etc.

ICD or AICD = Automatic Implanted Cardiac Defibrillator (Cheney has one of these) = a sophisticated device implanted in those at high risk of cardiac arrest. The device continually senses the heart's rhythm. If the rhythm decays into a life threatening rhythm, the device will deliver an electrical charge to shock the heart back into the normal rhythm.

Usually AICD's are placed in people who have severely impaired cardiac function due to heart attacks etc. The impaired function causes the heart to be dilated and flabby, increasing the risk of deadly rhythm disturbances. Sometimes people can have other predispositions to rhythm disturbances for other reasons necessitating an AICD.

Yes, Cheney's health is for shit. You can see now why there has never been any issue of his running for President, it would be strictly out of the question since he could pretty much check out with a rhythm disturbance at any time. I would've thought his health would have been too much of a liability to be Vice Pres too.