Chelsea Clinton tweets from her mother's bedside as Hillary remains hospitalized for blood clot between brain and skull
Chelsea says she's grateful to be starting the new year with my family and thanks public for their support.US Secretary of state hospitalized at New York-Presbyterian hospital after follow-up exam found the clot Was treated for a concussion earlier this month after fainting while she battled a stomach virus. Doctors expect a full recovery and say there has been no brain damage
Hillary Clinton remained hospitalized Tuesday for treatment of a blood clot in her head, as daughter Chelsea tweeted from her bedside that she was grateful to be starting the new year with her family.
Clinton is being treated with blood thinners to help dissolve the clot, which is located in a vein behind her right ear that helps carry blood away from the brain.
'Wishing all a healthy & happy 2013,' Chelsea Clinton tweeted Tuesday. 'Grateful to be starting the new year with my family.'
The comment was liked more than 7,300 times on Facebook and shared by 1,800 people on Twitter.
Clinton also thanked the public via Twitter for their support while her mother is hospitalized.
Thank you to all for sending good thoughts my Mom's way, she wrote. 'Grateful to all her doctors & that she'll make a full recovery!'
Former President Bill Clinton has been spotted driving to and from his wife's side at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights for much of the past 48 hours, according to CBS New York.
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 said on CNN.
The condition can be treated with blood thinners administered over several months until the clot breaks down.
Doctors are keeping her under their watchful eye as they adjust the dose of her anti-clotting medication.
Chelsea, who was spotted leaving the hospital Monday 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 contributor 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.
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.
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.
She told reporters at the press conference that 'it would be a good idea to find out how tired I really am.
Get well soon mam.!
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