Former vice president Dick Cheney may have undergone a successful heart transplant in the March of 2012, but prior to the surgery, the politician had suffered a grand total of five heart attacks since the age of 37. Since his heart transplant, Cheney’s health has remained in stable condition: he hasn’t had a heart attack since 2010 and he’s largely stayed out of the limelight. But according to a recent 60 Minutes interview between Cheney, CNN correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Cheney’s cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, the former vice president had fears about his pre-2012 pacemaker that went beyond simple natural heart attacks.

Cheney’s fears were spurred on by remarks from Reiner, who confessed suspicion that a terrorist with animosity toward the vice president would be able to hack into the pacemaker and initiate a fatal cardiac arrest. The doctor disabled the wireless feature of the pacemaker to help prevent such a cyber terrorist attack, but Cheney still didn’t feel comfortable speaking publicly about his fears until his new heart was in place.

The former vice president’s fears were similar to a scenario that played out last season in an episode of Showtime’s popular terrorism television drama, Homeland. In the episode – which Cheney discussed in the 60 Minutes interview – a terrorist did in fact assassinate the vice president of the United States by remotely accessing his pacemaker.

After the episode – appropriately titled “Broken Hearts” – aired last December, numerous journalists questioned the plausibility of the pacemaker plot, calling it a contrivance that worked well for a flashy and dramatic television assassination, but which wouldn’t really be possible in real life.

Cheney and Reiner have confirmed that, not only was the Homeland plot point possible, but something that both of them worried about frequently when Cheney had a pacemaker installed.

“I know from the experience we had and the necessity for adjusting my own device that it was an accurate portrayal of what was possible,” Cheney said of the episode.

Luckily, it seems as if the former vice president was never targeted via pacemaker during his time serving in the White House. Most of his heart attacks took place during periods when he wasn’t serving as Secretary of Defense for George Bush Sr. or as Vice President for George W. Bush. He did have a slight heart attack in November of 2000, possibly exacerbated by the stress of the first Bust Jr. election and all of the recounts that surrounded it. However, no evidence exists to suggest that a terrorist organization like Al-Qaeda attempted to kill the president with a pacemaker hack.