FORT WORTH, Texas (AllPolitics, Sept. 14) -- Whitewater figure Jim McDougal did not have access to his heart medications in the hours before he died last March, a federal government report revealed.

Jim McDougal

According to a report obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, McDougal complained of feeling ill the day before his death but was not seen by a doctor or given his heart drugs in the hours before his March 8 death.

McDougal was President Bill Clinton's former business partner in Arkansas and a cooperating witness in the Whitewater investigation

Shortly after his death it was revealed that McDougal was being held in administrative detention at the time he collapsed during an apparent heart attack. He was taken to a Forth Worth hospital by ambulance and arrived in full cardiac arrest.

He had been separated from other prisoners the day before for refusing to give a urine sample for a routine drug test. McDougal said he was unable to provide the sample because of his medications and complained of dizziness after trying for five hours, according to the report.

The government report said that during the move, guards did not find the heart medication because they did not want to wake McDougal's cell mate by searching for it, according to the Star-Telegram story Sunday.

One of the drugs, nitroglycerin, could have bought McDougal some time after he suffered a heart attack, said a prison official who asked not to be identified told the paper.

The prison spokeswoman, Susan Marlo, said Sunday that "there definitely are other facts that would explain these statements," but would not comment further.

Despite McDougal's complaint of being dizzy and breathless, and vomiting later, neither a prison doctor nor two physician attendants saw McDougal, according to the report. But the report says that he told guards he was fine and never asked for his medication.

McDougal appeared "alert, well-oriented and absent any visible signs of distress" until the next morning when a guard heard "a loud sighing from within the cell" and found him on the floor, the report said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Monday, September 14, 1998

• Top Democrats rip Clinton's defense strategy
• Analysis: Searching for an appropriate punishment
• Gingrich will not borrow money from Dole to pay ethics fine
• Report: McDougal had no access to heart drug, doctors just before death
• Poll: Approval of Clinton's job performance steady
• Impeachment: A primer
• George Wallace dies
• Wallace symbolized segregation, reconciliation

Election '98
• Primaries Tuesday in eight states, D.C.
• Delaware primary results

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