WHITE PLAINS — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said yesterday that she’s feeling better since falling ill at a 9/11 memorial ceremony, but she never lost consciousness and didn’t think her pneumonia diagnosis was significant enough to disclose beforehand.
“I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal,” she said of the pneumonia diagnosis she received Friday.
Clinton abruptly left the ceremony and appeared to stumble while she was waiting for her motorcade. Asked whether she fainted, Clinton replied: “No, I didn’t. I felt dizzy and I did lose my balance for a minute. But I got in, once I could sit down, once I could cool off, once I got some water, I immediately started feeling better.”
Later Tuesday, Clinton told supporters via text message and Facebook, “I’m feeling fine and getting better,” adding, “Like anyone who’s ever been home sick from work, I’m just anxious to get back out there.”
An outbreak of respiratory illness swept through Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the weeks before she was diagnosed with pneumonia, campaign aides said Monday.
Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, said in an interview Monday with PBS’ Charlie Rose that Hillary Clinton was “doing fine” after a good night’s sleep. He added that if there are more health problems that caused her apparent weakness, “then it’s a mystery to me and all of her doctors.”
Clinton said in the live telephone interview with CNN that she started to feel hot at the event, which took place on a muggy day in New York. There was little shade where Clinton was standing alongside other dignitaries.
As family members of 9/11 victims read the names of the nearly 3 000 people killed in the attacks, she decided to leave and get a drink of water. She was wearing a wool suit and had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday, a fact her campaign had not made public.
She waved to reporters and said: “I’m feeling great. It’s a beautiful day in New York.” She was then driven to her home in suburban Chappaqua, New York.
“It’s just the kind of thing that if it happens to you and you’re a busy, active person, you keep moving forward,” Clinton said on CNN.
Clinton’s doctor, Lisa R. Barback, later came to her home and conducted an examination. In a statement released by the campaign eight hours after the incident, Bardack said the 68-year-old Clinton “became overheated and dehydrated” at the 9/11 ceremony. By the end of the day, she was “rehydrated and recovering nicely,” the doctor said.
– AP
