BALTIMORE - Former Vice President Spiro Agnew's death was caused by acute leukemia, a cancer of the blood and blood-making organs that apparently went undiagnosed until the end, his doctors said yesterday.
Agnew died Tuesday evening after being rushed to a hospital in Berlin, a few miles west of his vacation home in Ocean City. Acquaintances said he had seen a doctor earlier in the day after complaining of feeling ill.
Agnew's family said he had remained active, and some friends said he seemed well in the days before he was stricken. But others said he seemed thinner and had complained for months of waning energy and other problems.
Weight loss and fatigue are two of the most common symptoms of leukemia.
"Nothing was wrong with him. He looked 100-percent fit," said Fred Musiani, an Ocean City restaurateur and a close friend of Agnew. He said the pair had a golfing date planned on Tuesday, but it was washed out by rain. They had another tee time set for 9:44 a.m. today at the Ocean City Yacht and Golf Club.
But H. W. "Woody" Hutchinson, superintendent of the Agnews' condominium tower in Ocean City, said Judy Agnew told him her husband had seen a doctor Tuesday morning and had blood drawn after complaining of not feeling well.
Former Baltimore County Councilman Norman Lauenstein, an Essex lawyer, said Agnew telephoned him in July and said he had just returned from a business trip to Asia and felt terrible.
" 'I never felt so ill in my whole life as I did on that trip to Asia.' " Lauenstein quoted Angew saying. "He sounded in good spirits. He was always upbeat. But he said he was just so sick."
Dr. Steven Gore, an assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said, "It would be unusual for someone to have an acute leukemia that wasn't otherwise causing symptoms. To cause a precipitous death like that would be pretty unusual, but not impossible."
"If anything, somebody who's 77 and developing acute leukemia is more likely to have symptoms recognized earlier," he said.
A statement issued by the Agnew family yesterday said his death was a "sudden passing, there was no suffering and he had been very active to this point."
Agnew's body was taken to the Ulrich Funeral Home in Berlin. Funeral arrangements were incomplete, but services will be private, the family said.
AP PHOTO
Former Vice President Spiro Agnew died Tuesday in a Maryland hospital.