Bernie Sanders Had a Common Heart Procedure. So Why the Mystery? [View all]

[brooklynite]

New York Times

WASHINGTON — “None of us know when a medical emergency will affect us,” Senator Bernie Sanders wrote in a tweet from Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center on Wednesday, hours after the 78-year-old Democratic candidate for president experienced one.

Mr. Sanders’s emergency — the sudden onset of chest pain known as angina — is one that thousands of other Americans experience each year. Mr. Sanders’s discomfort occurred at a campaign event on Tuesday night. Because it signaled acute heart trouble, the senator went to the hospital where doctors implanted two stents in one of the coronary arteries that nourish the heart.

Doctors often release patients who undergo such procedures in a day or two. Mr. Sanders remains in the hospital, and his campaign has closely guarded pertinent details about his heart condition and treatment, raising questions about the extent of his health issues.

Among other things, Mr. Sanders has not disclosed whether blood and electrocardiogram tests showed he had a heart attack. The senator and his campaign have not allowed reporters to interview his doctors, though advisers have said that Mr. Sanders would be able to appear in the next Democratic debate on Oct. 15.

"Mr. Sanders remains in the hospital"