I want four more years of life: Clinton

Former United States president Bill Clinton who has been admitted to a New York hospital with a heart condition said he felt lucky and joked that he wants 'four more years' of life.

"I feel really blessed, you know, because a lot of people who have a heart attack never get any advance warning," Clinton said late last night after phoning in to Larry King Live on CNN from a New York hospital where he is to undergo heart bypass surgery next week.

"Let me just say this, Republicans aren't the only people who want four more years here," Clinton joked,
admitting to feeling 'a little scared, but not much'.

Clinton first went to a hospital in Westchester county in the New York suburbs on Thursday night complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath. He was admitted to the New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia yesterday, which has one of the top cardiology units in the United States.

"I just had a feeling a couple of days ago I had to have it checked, when I finally got some tightness in my chest. And I hadn't done any exercise. That's the first time that ever happened to me, and we did this angiogram and found out I had blockage that was too significant to open and put a stent in. We had to do the whole surgery," Clinton told CNN.

"I was lucky," Clinton said. "The heart wasn't damaged."

Clinton thanked the doctors who have been treating him and said he was looking forward to the operation. "I guess I'm a little scared, but not much... I want to see what it's like to run five miles again."