Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was hospitalized in Manhattan last night after doctors found a blood clot during an exam to follow up on a concussion she suffered earlier this month, the State Department said. The blood clot is located between her brain and skull behind the right ear.
Clinton, 65, was admitted to New York Presbyterian’s Washington Heights complex, where she will stay for at least 48 hours to be closely monitored.
Doctors will treat the former first lady with anticoagulants, said her spokesman, Philippe Reines.
“Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion,” Reines said.
“They will determine if any further action is required.”
Clinton’s doctors released an update this afternoon, saying, that a MRI “the scan revealed that a right transverse sinus venous thrombosis had formed. This is a clot in the vein that is situated in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear. It did not result in a stroke, or neurological damage.”
They say she’s expected to make a full recovery.
At around 11:45 a.m. today, Clinton’s daughter Chelsea ducked out of the hospital, and was checking her phone outside. When asked by The Post, “How’s your mom doing?” the former First Daughter turned heel and went back inside the hospital without answering.
Clinton was suffering from a stomach virus earlier this month when she fainted and hit her head, causing the concussion, while alone at her home. Doctors said she was dehydrated at the time.
Clinton worked last week from home, where she spent the holidays with her family. She canceled a trip to North Africa and the Middle East that had been planned for the next week.
The concussion spared Clinton from testifying Dec. 20 before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about a report that slammed the State Department for failing to provide enough security to prevent the deadly attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Deputies Thomas Nides and Bill Burns appeared in her place.
Clinton has taken responsibility, but was not blamed in the report, issued by a panel led by a former ambassador, Thomas Pickering.
Cynics in the media and in Congress sneered that Clinton was faking the concussion to avoid testimony about the attack, which killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
“I’m not a doctor, but it seems as though that the secretary of state has come down with a case of Benghazi flu,” outgoing US Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said at the time.
John Bolton, the UN ambassador under George W. Bush, called her concussion a “diplomatic illness” in a Fox News interview.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland has called those accusations “wild speculation.”
Clinton is known for a grueling travel schedule that has already made her the most-traveled secretary of state in history, with visits to 112 countries while in the job.
The former New York senator plans to step down as America’s top diplomat next month. President Obama has nominated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to replace her.
Additional reporting by Gerry Shields and Post Wire Services