Sanders’s Doctors Say He’s Fit for Presidency After Heart Attack
Sanders’s Doctors Say He’s Fit for Presidency After Heart Attack
(Bloomberg) -- Bernie Sanders’s campaign for the first time on Monday disclosed information about the severity of the heart attack he suffered in October, but also released letters from doctors describing him as in good health and fit to lead the country.
The Vermont senator’s heart attack was caused by a blockage in the midportion of his left anterior descending coronary artery, Congress’s attending physician, Brian Monahan, said in one of the letters. But since then, his “heart muscle strength has improved” and Sanders doesn’t have symptoms of congestive heart failure, a life-threatening condition, Monahan wrote.
The senator is in “good health currently,” Monahan added.
The Sanders campaign said in a statement that he is “fit and ready to serve as president of the United States.” His cardiologist, Martin LeWinter of the University of Vermont Medical Center, wrote that he had suffered “modest heart muscle damage” after the Oct. 1 attack but “has been doing very well since.”
Sanders, 78, would be the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency if he is elected next year. His campaign has sought to quell questions about his health since his heart attack and has been slow to reveal details of the episode.
He is nonetheless a top contender for the Democratic nomination and is running second to South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg in polling before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses in February, according to RealClearPolitics.
“The fact that he is continuing to engage in vigorous activity makes me comfortable that he should do well,” Steven Nissen, the head of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said in a telephone interview. “I would tell him to go about his business, take his medications and don’t live in fear of another event.”
He cautioned that the future can’t be predicted and every heart attack survivor is at higher risk for another one. Still, Sanders’s prognosis appears very good based on the information his doctors released, Nissen said.
Missing Data
Based on the details that the campaign released on Monday, it appears that Sanders suffered what’s called an ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, or STEMI -- among the most lethal kinds of heart attacks, according to Christopher Cannon, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Nissen and Cannon were not involved in Sanders’ treatment and were relying on the recently released information about his health.
The Sanders campaign didn’t release at least one key piece of data cardiologists would use to assess his health: His ejection fraction, or the amount of blood his heart pumps with each contraction. Asked for that data, Mike Casca, a Sanders campaign spokesman, responded that “the letters are very thorough.”
The Sanders campaign didn’t immediately disclose that he had suffered a heart attack in October, at first describing the episode as a fleeting episode of chest pain. The more serious diagnosis was revealed three days afterward, though even then the campaign did not describe its severity. Sanders was on the campaign trail in Las Vegas when he became ill.
In the past, he has undergone surgery to repair hernias and to remove a cyst from his vocal cords, Monahan wrote. He takes five medicines daily, including a statin to control cholesterol, a drug to reduce blood pressure, aspirin, a blood thinner to prevent stroke or another heart attack and a thyroid medication.
He has never smoked and seldom consumes alcohol, Monahan added.
LeWinter wrote that Sanders has “made an uneventful recovery” from the heart attack. His ability to exercise is about 50% higher than other men his age with a “similar diagnosis” and comparable to men his age without heart disease, according to a letter signed by Philip Ades, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Vermont Medical Center, and Patrick Savage, a senior clinical exercise physiologist.
They added that Sanders had a “cardiopulmonary exercise tolerance test” on Dec. 11.
“Should he be elected,” LeWinter wrote, “I am confident he has the mental and physical stamina to fully undertake the rigors of the presidency.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Mario Parker in Washington at mparker22@bloomberg.net;Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, John Harney
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