WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was released from a New York hospital on Wednesday, three days
after doctors discovered a blood clot in her head.
Clinton's medical team advised her Wednesday
evening that she was making good progress on all fronts and said they
are confident
she will fully recover, said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines.
Doctors had been treating Clinton with blood thinners to dissolve
a clot in a vein that runs through the space between the brain and
the skull behind the right ear.
"She's eager to get back to the office," Reines said in a statement, adding that the secretary and her family are grateful
for the excellent care she received at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
Reines said details of when Clinton will return to work will be clarified in the coming days.
Clinton had been in the hospital since
Sunday, when doctors discovered the clot on an MRI test during a
follow-up exam stemming
from a concussion she suffered earlier in December. While at home
battling a stomach virus, Clinton had fainted, fallen and
struck her head, a spokesman said.
"Grateful my Mom discharged from the hospital and is heading home," the secretary's daughter, Chelsea, wrote on Twitter. "Even
more grateful her medical team (is) confident she'll make a full recovery."
Earlier Wednesday, the State Department said Clinton had been speaking by telephone with staff in Washington and reviewing
paperwork while in the hospital.
"She's been quite active on the phone with all of us," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
Before being released from the hospital,
Clinton was photographed Wednesday getting into a black van with her
husband, Bill,
Chelsea and a security contingent to be taken elsewhere on the
sprawling hospital campus. The last time Clinton had been seen
publicly was on Dec. 7.
Clinton's physicians had said Monday that
there was no neurological damage but that they planned to keep her in
the hospital
while they established the proper dose for the blood thinners.
They said Clinton, 65, had been in good spirits and was engaging
with doctors, family and aides.
Sidelined by her illness for most of
December, Clinton was forced to cancel scheduled testimony before
Congress about a scathing
report into the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi,
Libya, and was absent on Dec. 21 when President Barack
Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to succeed her when she
steps down at the start of Obama's second term, as had long
been planned.
But Clinton had expected to return to work
this week and had already started to resume regular phone contact with
her foreign
counterparts. On Saturday, the day before the clot was discovered,
Clinton had a half-hour conversation with Lakhdar Brahimi,
the U.N. envoy to Syria, in which the two discussed the state of
affairs in that country, her spokeswoman said.
Also on Saturday, Clinton spoke by telephone
with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al
Thani, discussing
recent developments in Syria, Afghanistan and the Palestinian
territories.
The illness has also raised questions about Clinton's political future and how her health might influence her decision about
whether to run for president in 2016, as prominent Democrats have been urging her to consider.
Clinton suffered from a blood clot in 1998, midway through her husband's second term as president, although that clot was
located in her knee.