Clinton back at work on Haiti after heart procedure
13 February 2010 06:11 am
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was back to work on Haiti relief and doing 'very well" on Friday a day after a successful heart procedure to open a blocked artery to his heart that caused him chest discomfort.
Television footage showed Clinton, president from 1993 to 2001 and currently U.N. special envoy to Haiti, walking to his vehicle as he left the hospital in Manhattan and arriving home later in the New York suburb of Chappaqua.
"I'm doing very well. I feel very blessed. I was fortunate that you know I kind of had a feeling about it," Clinton told reporters in televised comments after returning home.
He said he had felt "a little bit of tingling, not pain" four days ago and "I thought I ought to check it out."
After he left the hospital, Clinton, 63, issued a statement marking the one-month anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 200,000 people and left more than a million homeless.
"Despite its staggering losses, Haiti still has a chance to escape the chains of the past and the ruins of the earthquake. But we all will have to do what we can today," he said.
Clinton had quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2004 to free up four blocked arteries. The latest incident came after he traveled twice to Haiti to help recovery efforts.
Two stents were placed in one of Clinton's coronary arteries after tests showed one of the arteries operated on in 2004 needed to be reopened, Dr. Allan Schwartz, head of cardiology at Presbyterian/Columbia, told reporters.
He said there was no indication Clinton had a heart attack or any damage to his heart. Schwartz said Clinton could resume his "very active lifestyle" and gave the president an "excellent" prognosis.
Clinton told reporters, "It's miraculous what they do with the stents. They just go in and go out and I didn't take any sedatives or anything, so I was alert," Clinton said, adding he watched the procedure on a monitor.
Clinton's wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, arrived at the hospital on Thursday evening, joining daughter Chelsea.- Reuters