Her face full of anguish, this is
the moment Chelsea Clinton left New York Presbyterian Hospital yesterday after
visiting her mother Hillary, who has a blood clot between her brain and skull.
Chelsea was the first of the Clinton
clan to be by her mother's bedside after she was admitted on Sunday.
As soon as word of her condition
spread, a frenzy of media gathered outside the hospital and captured Chelsea's
worried face as she left.
Former President Bill Clinton later
arrived at the hospital to visit his wife, the concern also etched on his face
as he was spotted driving away after a brief stay.
The Secretary of State is expected
to spend the next few days being treated for the clot which doctors discovered
during a routine checkup after Hillary fell and hit her head two weeks ago.
Chelsea |
In a statement yesterday, doctors assured it was not a life-threatening condition and assured she had suffered no brain damage or stroke.
'In all other aspects of her recovery, the Secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff,' Drs Lisa Bardack and Gigi El-Bayoumi said in a statement.
A clot occurs when a blockage builds up, either from partial thrombus (coagulated blood) or an outside compression. When the vein becomes blocked, the coagulated blood may extend to veins draining the area, which could lead to a lack of oxygen and tissue death.
For Clinton, 'the particular vein they're talking about, there are enough other areas for the blood to travel through so it doesn't build up in the brain,' Dr Sanjay Gupta told CNN.
Hillary |
Clinton, 65, was admitted to the hospital on Sunday and CBS New York reports that doctors want to monitor her for at least another 48 hours.
Doctors are keeping her under their
watchful eye as they adjust the dose of her anti-clotting medication.
Chelsea, who was spotted by the New York Daily News,
was the first member of the Clinton family to be seen publicly at the hospital.
Chelsea, 32, a special correspondent
for NBC News, looked upset as she left the hospital - cell phone in hand. She
ignored questions from a reporter and went back inside.
Aides and doctors say Clinton
contracted a stomach virus in early December and became dehydrated, then fainted,
fell and hit her head on December 9.
She was diagnosed with a concussion
on December 13 and hasn't been seen in public since.
The new health scare may bring back some painful memories for the former first lady, who suffered a large blood clot in her leg back in 1998.
In a 2007 interview with the New York Daily News, Clinton called the 1998 clot 'the most significant health
scare I've ever had.'
Most clots in the legs are treated
with six months of blood thinners to allow them to dissolve on their own and to
prevent further clots from forming, he said.
A clot in a lung or the brain is
more serious. Lung clots, called pulmonary embolisms, can be deadly, and a clot
in the brain can cause a stroke.
Clinton's illness led her to cancel
an overseas trip and scheduled testimony before Congress about the attack on
the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
When her absence was reported,
several pundits and newspapers accused Clinton of making her illness seem worse
than it was to dodge questions from lawmakers over the consulate attack, which
claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
The New York Post called her
concussion a 'head fake.'
Florida Rep Allan West said Clinton
had a case of the 'Benghazi flu,' while Fox News contributer Charles
Krauthammer dubbed it an 'acute Benghazi allergy.'
Reines said doctors will continue to
assess Clinton's condition, 'including other issues associated with her
concussion.'
Earlier this week, The National
Enquirer reported that brain cancer was behind Mrs Clinton's health problems
and that she was facing a barrage of medical tests to confirm the diagnosis.
But a spokesman for the Democrat
labelled the claims 'absolute nonsense' and insisted Clinton was recovering
well from the fall and subsequent concussion.
Only days before her concussion
Clinton had said she was in excellent health during an interview with Barbara
Walters.
Detractors have claimed Clinton's
advancing age and health make her too old to realistically serve as a two-term
president were she elected in 2016.
'I am, thankfully, knock on wood,
not only healthy, but have incredible stamina and energy,' Clinton told Barbara
Walters.
Clinton has a history of fainting,
having experienced a brief spell in in 2005 during an appearance before a
women's group in Buffalo.
The former first lady is expected to
step down from her role as Secretary of State in the beginning of 2013 when
President Obama begins his second term.
At a State Department press
conference in January 2012, she announced that she would be stepping down from
the 'high wire of American politics' after 20 years as first lady, a senator
from New York, and finally U.S. Secretary of State.
HILLARY'S DIAGNOSIS: TREATING TRANSVERSE SINUS VENOUS THROMBOSIS
Hillary
Clinton has a blood clot located in the vein in the space between the
brain and the skull behind the right ear, a condition called transverse
sinus venous thrombosis.
The transverse sinus is located beneath the brain and allows blood to drain from the back of the head. It is the most common sites for clots inside the head, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
A clot occurs when a blockage builds up, either from partial thrombus (coagulated blood) or an outside compression. When the vein becomes blocked, the coagulated blood may extend to veins draining the area, which could lead to a lack of oxygen and tissue death.
For Clinton, 'the particular vein they're talking about, there are enough other areas for the blood to travel through so it doesn't build up in the brain,' Dr Sanjay Gupta told CNN.
Symptoms and signs can include headache, nausea, vomiting and seizures, although the condition was detected in Clinton with a routine MRI scan following her treatment for concussion.
Doctors questioned whether this concussion, paired with the fact Hillary had a similar clot in her leg in 1988, led to the condition.
'You don't typically see blood clots forming in veins after this sort of concussion,' Dr Gupta said. 'She is somebody who has formed these blood clots before. There are some people who more likely develop blood clots. Does she clot more vigorously than normal? That with the brain injury - the concussion - could have led to it.'
The condition can be treated with blood thinners administered over several months until the clot breaks down.
Other treatments include using a shunt to drain pressure on the brain or surgery - yet doctors said neither are necessary for Clinton.
'The most concerning thing was... the fact that this could be a blood clot pushing on her brain,' Dr Gupta said. 'That's not what this is. You wouldn't treat something like that with blood thinners. It's not a mass or a collection of blood pushing on the brain but it is something you'd want to address fairly quickly.'
The transverse sinus is located beneath the brain and allows blood to drain from the back of the head. It is the most common sites for clots inside the head, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
A clot occurs when a blockage builds up, either from partial thrombus (coagulated blood) or an outside compression. When the vein becomes blocked, the coagulated blood may extend to veins draining the area, which could lead to a lack of oxygen and tissue death.
For Clinton, 'the particular vein they're talking about, there are enough other areas for the blood to travel through so it doesn't build up in the brain,' Dr Sanjay Gupta told CNN.
Symptoms and signs can include headache, nausea, vomiting and seizures, although the condition was detected in Clinton with a routine MRI scan following her treatment for concussion.
Doctors questioned whether this concussion, paired with the fact Hillary had a similar clot in her leg in 1988, led to the condition.
'You don't typically see blood clots forming in veins after this sort of concussion,' Dr Gupta said. 'She is somebody who has formed these blood clots before. There are some people who more likely develop blood clots. Does she clot more vigorously than normal? That with the brain injury - the concussion - could have led to it.'
The condition can be treated with blood thinners administered over several months until the clot breaks down.
Other treatments include using a shunt to drain pressure on the brain or surgery - yet doctors said neither are necessary for Clinton.
'The most concerning thing was... the fact that this could be a blood clot pushing on her brain,' Dr Gupta said. 'That's not what this is. You wouldn't treat something like that with blood thinners. It's not a mass or a collection of blood pushing on the brain but it is something you'd want to address fairly quickly.'
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