Editor’s note: This story was updated on Oct. 2 at 11:15 a.m and 5:50 p.m.
[S]en. Bernie Sanders is off the presidential campaign trail after undergoing heart surgery to open a blocked artery.
The senator had two stents placed in the blocked artery after experiencing chest pain during a campaign event Tuesday evening in Nevada.
Sanders was said to be resting comfortably Wednesday but has suspended campaign events until further notice, according to his campaign. Aides downplayed concerns the event could raise about his age and health — Sanders is 78 and would be the oldest president ever elected.
According to the campaign, the senator underwent a medical evaluation at a Las Vegas hospital after having “chest discomfort.” He was found to have a blockage in an artery. Sanders underwent heart surgery and had the two stents — small tubes that allow blood to flow normally to and from the heart — successfully inserted, the campaign said in a statement.
“Sanders is conversing and in good spirits,” longtime aide Jeff Weaver said in a statement. “He will be resting up over the next few days.”
“We are canceling his events and appearances until further notice, and we will continue to provide appropriate updates,” he added.
Sanders was in Las Vegas for a slate of events to discuss gun safety and then had planned six campaign stops in two days throughout California.
The campaign also has indefinitely postponed its $1.3 million television ad buy, which it had announced Tuesday, and was supposed to begin hitting the airwaves in Iowa on Thursday. This was Sanders’ first television advertisement of the election cycle.
Before Weaver released the statement to the press, he held a conference call with all staff members to update them on the senator.
One top aide to Sanders, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said while no heart issue should be taken lightly, he was optimistic the senator will make a full and speedy recovery.
“He got up this morning and was saying ‘alright what am I doing today,’” the aide said. “He is one of the toughest people I know.”
Dr. Harold Dauerman, the network director of interventional cardiology at the University of Vermont Health Network, has not treated Sanders but spoke to the media generally about the health conditions involved.
Dauerman said that based on the information released by the campaign, Sanders’ condition should not be a cause of alarm for voters and constituents.
“The presence of coronary artery disease itself, and requiring a stent, should not be a concern to voters for a high risk of short term mortality or any limitation on his ability to do his government positions,” Dauerman said.
Dauerman said stents are commonly used to treat coronary artery disease, and the UVM Health Network performs 2,200 coronary stent procedures a year. Dauerman added that the vast majority, 80%, receive a stent after experiencing non-life threatening warning signs — like chest pain, shortness of breath or other symptoms. For these patients, the post-stent prognosis is “very favorable,” Dauerman said.
“They’re often discharged the same day from the hospital after four hours of observation, while some of them stay overnight are discharged the following morning,” he said. “They’re fully active with relatively little limitations within 24 to 48 hours.”
Dauerman said Sanders’ age would not be a factor in his recovery. Nearly all of the stent procedures at UVMMC are done through a three millimeter hole in the wrist artery, and there is no recovery period for someone who hasn’t had a life-threatening heart attack.
“If you’ve had a life-threatening heart attack, it depends on the size of the heart attack how long the recovery is,” Dauerman said.
Sanders will likely be prescribed an oral blood thinner to treat the disease, and will be in the care of a doctor and a specialist the rest of his life, Dauerman said, but he expects Sanders will have no limitations and a low risk of repeat hospitalization over the next five years.
Several of Sanders’ fellow Democratic candidates for president — including John Delaney, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnisota, Senn. Kamala Harris of California and Sen. Elizabeth Warren — took to Twitter to wish the Vermont senator well.
Bruce, Team Warren, and I are sending all our best wishes for a speedy recovery to @BernieSanders. I hope to see my friend back on the campaign trail very soon.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 2, 2019
“I hope to see my friend back on the campaign trail very soon,” Warren said.
Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, a longtime Sanders friend and ally, also wished the Vermont senator all the best, writing on Twitter that he has heard positive reports about the procedure.
The Sanders campaign also decided to use the medical procedure as a way to continue to push for the senator’s Medicare for All proposal.
David Sirota, Sanders’ speech writer, wrote in the campaign’s newsletter, that that stents cost up to six times more in the U.S. than in other industrialized countries with government-sponsored health care systems.
Because this campaign is always on message for the 99%, I’d encourage media reporting on stents to point out that stents are an example of why we need to join the rest of the industrialized world and pass @BernieSanders’ Medicare for All plan. https://t.co/7syEEiGI59
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) October 2, 2019
Sanders has been plagued by questions about his health and age during this election cycle. In Town Hall events across the country he has addressed the concerns but has said he is in excellent health. One of his chief rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, has also had questions raised about his health — Biden is two years younger than Sanders.
Sanders’ campaign has played up his physical verve and stamina with video of him running or playing basketball. Many of Sanders’ aides also regularly joke that they have difficulty matching the Vermont senator’s stamina on the campaign trail or on the jogging paths.
Sanders, who has been campaigning across the country nonstop since he announced his bid for president in February, has already had two incidents, both in South Carolina, slow down his torrid pace.
Two weeks ago, Sanders cut a trip to the Southern state short so he could return to Vermont and rest his voice. At the time campaign staff had said it was only precautionary and nothing to be concerned about.
In March, also in South Carolina, Sanders cut his head on a glass shower door and received seven stitches.
Sanders, who if elected would be 83 at the end of his first term, had committed to releasing a record of his medical history in mid September, joining former Vice President Joe Biden, 76, and Warren, 70, in doing so.
Sanders’ recent medical scare came the same day his campaign announced a fundraising haul of $25 million during the last three months, which came as a much needed boost after he had stagnated in national and statewide polls.
On Tuesday evening, as Sanders was in Nevada, his campaign was holding a “strategy call” with volunteers and supporters touting its strong positioning to win the Democratic nomination for president.
“We are in the homestretch everybody,” Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ campaign manager, said on the call. “We have positioned ourselves to win this fourth quarter, to win in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Then we are on our way.”
Correction: A previous version of this story identified the senator as being 77 years old.
