Word: navale
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...Government and Commander in Chief of the armed forces of the world's ranking superpower, would be unconscious for more than three hours on Saturday and, in his own words, "incapable of discharging the constitutional powers and duties" of his office. At best, he would be confined to Bethesda Naval Hospital for a week to ten days of postoperative recuperation after that. Even after he returned to the White House, it might take as long as two months for him to regain his full strength, and there would be continuing concern about the health of the oldest man ever...
...such concerns were foreseen when the President and Nancy Reagan arrived by helicopter at Bethesda Naval Hospital from the White House about 1:30 Friday afternoon. A routine checkup in March-had disclosed a polyp in the President's colon, and his doctors thought it prudent to remove it and make a thorough examination of the entire intestine at the same time. But they were in no rush and told the President he could schedule the procedure just about any time he chose. He eventually selected July 12, a day when there was nothing much on his calendar...
...explaining that they had decided against a scan of the entire bowel after the discovery of the first polyp because it was in fact merely a "pseudopolyp," more an inflammation than an actual growth. In following the course they did, insisted Dr. Edward Cattau, chief of gastroenterology at the naval hospital, the doctors were adhering to the screening guidelines established by the American Cancer Society...
...Beyond that, the White House staff needed to make plans for running the Government during the President's recuperation, however long that might be. If, as an old saying goes, "power is where the President is," then the most powerful office in the world would be transferred to Bethesda Naval Hospital...
Methods for dealing publicly with presidential illnesses have changed substantially since then. Bulletins are issued, news conferences are held, and sometimes plans are made for a temporary transfer of power. In 1966, when Lyndon Johnson went to the Bethesda National Naval Hospital for repair of an abdominal hernia, he summoned reporters to his bedside three hours after he left surgery to let them know he was very much in control. Under an informal agreement with Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey had been given permission to exercise the power of the Chief Executive if the President was unable...