NEW YORK – Bill Clinton was hospitalized with chest pains and shortness of breath Friday, and will undergo heart bypass surgery in an operation that could sideline the former president at the height of the Democratic campaign for the White House.
An angiogram showed that Clinton had significant blockage in his heart arteries but had not suffered a heart attack, a doctor who performed the test said.
Clinton said he was looking forward to completing the surgery and resuming his normal activities. “Let me just say this, Republicans aren’t the only people who want four more years here,” he told CNN’s “Larry King Live” Friday.
Clinton’s wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, said the former president would undergo surgery early next week. “I wanted to report to you that my husband is doing very well,” she said outside New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia, where the former president is being treated.
In bypass surgery, a piece of blood vessel, usually taken from the patient’s leg, is sewn into place to create a detour around a blockage. Patients typically spend three to five days in the hospital and are encouraged to be fairly active right away.
Clinton had agreed to campaign for Democrat John Kerry in the two months to go before the election, and had appeared at some Democratic Party events.
He awaited the operation at the hospital in upper Manhattan not far from his Harlem office.
The president has remained an active political presence since he left the White House in 2001, whether quietly stopping by his Harlem office or drawing a standing ovation for a rousing speech to Democrats at the July convention in Boston. Most recently, he was on the road plugging his memoirs, “My Life.”
During his two terms as president, Clinton was an avid jogger, but was also known for his love of fast food. In January, Clinton said he had cut out junk food after going on the South Beach diet and starting a workout regimen.
The good news for Clinton is that nonemergency bypasses, such as the one he has scheduled, are relatively safe. Also, patients leave the hospital armed with medications that, together with good diet and exercise, dramatically lower their risk of a future heart attack or further surgery.
Hillary Clinton said her husband would “be back in fighting form before really very long after the surgery and the period of necessary recovery passes.”
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