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| FILE - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, listens to a reporter ask a question during a news conference with African Union Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, not seen, after their meeting at the Department of State in Washington, in this Nov. 28, 2012 file photo. Doctors treating Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for a blood clot in her head said Monday Dec. 31, 2013 that blood thinners are being used to dissolve the clot and they are confident she will make a full recovery. |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was released from a New York hospital on Wednesday, three days after doctors discovered a blood clot in her head.
Clinton's medical team
advised her Wednesday evening that she was making good progress on all
fronts and said they are confident she will fully recover, said Clinton
spokesman Philippe Reines. Doctors had been treating Clinton with blood
thinners to dissolve a clot in a vein that runs through the space
between the brain and the skull behind the right ear.
"She's
eager to get back to the office," Reines said in a statement, adding
that the secretary and her family are grateful for the excellent care
she received at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
Reines said details of when Clinton will return to work will be clarified in the coming days.
Clinton
had been in the hospital since Sunday, when doctors discovered the clot
on an MRI test during a follow-up exam stemming from a concussion she
suffered earlier in December. While at home battling a stomach virus,
Clinton had fainted, fallen and struck her head, a spokesman said.
"Grateful
my Mom discharged from the hospital and is heading home," the
secretary's daughter, Chelsea, wrote on Twitter. "Even more grateful her
medical team (is) confident she'll make a full recovery."
Earlier
Wednesday, the State Department said Clinton had been speaking by
telephone with staff in Washington and reviewing paperwork while in the
hospital.
"She's been quite active on the phone with all of us," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
Before
being released from the hospital, Clinton was photographed Wednesday
getting into a black van with her husband, Bill, Chelsea and a security
contingent to be taken elsewhere on the sprawling hospital campus. The
last time Clinton had been seen publicly was on Dec. 7.
Clinton's
physicians had said Monday that there was no neurological damage but
that they planned to keep her in the hospital while they established the
proper dose for the blood thinners. They said Clinton, 65, had been in
good spirits and was engaging with doctors, family and aides.
Sidelined
by her illness for most of December, Clinton was absent on Dec. 21 when
President Barack Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to succeed
her when she steps down at the start of Obama's second term, as had long
been planned. The illness also forced to cancel scheduled testimony
before Congress about a scathing report into the attack on the U.S.
diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans,
although she could still testify in the future.
"She
has said that she is open" to going before Congress, Nuland said
Wednesday, while Clinton was still hospitalized. "We are working with
them now on their schedule, because there's also a question of when they
are going to be in."
Clinton had expected to
return to work this week and had already started to resume regular phone
contact with her foreign counterparts. On Saturday, the day before the
clot was discovered, Clinton had a half-hour conversation with Lakhdar
Brahimi, the U.N. envoy to Syria, in which the two discussed the state
of affairs in that country, her spokeswoman said.
Also
on Saturday, Clinton spoke by telephone with Qatari Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, discussing recent
developments in Syria, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.
The
illness has also raised questions about Clinton's political future and
how her health might influence her decision about whether to run for
president in 2016, as prominent Democrats have been urging her to
consider.
Clinton suffered from a blood clot
in 1998, midway through her husband's second term as president, although
that clot was located in her knee.
