On Wednesday we reported that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had been forced off the campaign trail earlier this week due to chest pains. The end result was Bernie being admitted to a Nevada hospital, where he was currently campaigning, for a heart procedure of having two stents placed.
Bernie was released from the hospital late on Friday afternoon, and doctors have now confirmed that the situation was a little more severe than the campaign let on earlier in the week.
Bernie suffered a myocardial infarction, or more commonly known as a heart attack, according to his doctors:
A statement from Sanders’ doctors released through the campaign on Friday said Sanders “was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction,” a medical term for a heart attack.
“The Senator was stable upon arrival and taken immediately to the cardiac catheterization laboratory, at which time two stents were placed in a blocked coronary artery in a timely fashion,” the doctors’ statement said. “All other arteries were normal.”
Bernie says he feels great and intends to be back on the campaign trail very soon. The talk and questions of whether this meant Bernie would drop his 2020 campaign seem to be vanquished with this positive news.
The LA Times added some more reporting that indicates Bernie’s success with the procedure puts him in pretty good health moving forward, although his age, as with Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s, will always remain a question:
Heart attacks can be deadly, but survival rates and treatments have improved in recent decades. About 15% of sufferers never reach the hospital, but the prognosis is good for survivors who receive treatment quickly, with many leaving the hospital with limited heart damage, according to a summary from Harvard Medical School.
His campaign has also confirmed that Sanders fully intends to participate in the fourth Democratic debate coming up on Oct. 15 in Ohio.
We have touched on questions of ageism working its way into the Democratic primary given the current demographic makeup of the field. With candidates pushing well into their seventies, on both sides, the question of health and ability simply can’t go undiscussed. Voters will have to weigh the issue as part of their approach to the primary on the Democratic side.
If Democrats end up nomination another septuagenarian, then it may make Trump happy, as we discussed back on April 29:
Of course, the current White House is tickled to see Bernie and Biden floating to the top of the Democratic field. Donald Trump is a member of the septuagenarian white male club as well, if Democrats fail to nominate a younger, more vibrant candidate to the 2020 campaign, that issue is basically taken off the table. Democrats would be unable, in theory, to make the needed arguments to rekindle the Obama coalition of 2008 and 2012.
For all the talk of age being a factor, Bernie has some of the youngest supporters who don’t seem at all phased by it. However, maybe that has more to do with Bernie’s likability.
It would seem that Sanders will be back on the trail next week after he takes a few more days to recover this weekend.
