Hillary Clinton Is Hospitalized After Exam Finds a Blood Clot
By HELENE COOPER
Published: December 30, 2012
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was hospitalized on Sunday with a blood clot stemming from a concussion she suffered earlier this month, a State Department spokesman said.
Morne De Klerk/Getty Images
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last month.
Mrs. Clinton, who had canceled most of her public events in recent weeks because of the injury, was at a follow-up examination on Sunday when doctors discovered the blood clot, according to Philippe Reines, her longtime spokesman.
“She is being treated with anticoagulants and is at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours,” Mr. Reines said in a statement.
“Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion,” Mr. Reines said. “They will determine if any further action is required.”
Aides said that Mrs. Clinton, 65, had become dehydrated this month because of a stomach virus she contracted during a trip to Europe. She fainted and struck her head, causing the concussion.
Among the events she missed because of the injury was a Congressional hearing for the September attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya.
State Department officials had said that Mrs. Clinton fainted when she was at home alone in Washington but added that the concussion was not diagnosed immediately.
She canceled a planned trip to Morocco, and Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, gave a mixed picture about the severity of her illness, describing her as having a “very uncomfortable stomach virus” and then saying she was “under the weather.”
An expert not involved in Mrs. Clinton’s care said that clots are most common in the leg or in a large vein in the head. Dr. David Langer, a brain surgeon and associate professor at Hofstra-North Shore-Long Island Jewish School of Medicine, said that prompt treatment usually dissolves the clots, but that untreated clots in the head can become more worrisome and even lead to a hemorrhage inside the brain.
Blood-thinning drugs can dissolve the clots, he said, and patients may need to stay on them for weeks or months to make sure the problem does not recur.
Mrs. Clinton, who will step down from her post in January, did not attend the announcement this month that Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, would be nominated to succeed her as secretary of state. She issued a statement praising Mr. Kerry.
Mrs. Clinton is widely considered to be a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, should she decide to seek the office once held by her husband.
One of the most popular members of President Obama’s cabinet, Mrs. Clinton, a former senator from New York, has not said publicly whether she will pursue the nomination a second time after losing the 2008 presidential primary.
But aides close to her have not ruled it out.
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