Members of the Secret Service stand outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital where U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remains hospitalized, January 1, 2013.
Secretary Clinton Recovering, Working from Hospital
STATE DEPARTMENT —
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is working from New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where she is receiving medication to help dissolve a blood clot in her head.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Clinton is engaging with her doctors, family and staff as she recovers from a concussion caused by dehydration from a stomach virus.
"She has been talking to her staff, including today," she said. "She has been quite active on the phone with all of us. But she also made some calls on Saturday to a couple of foreign officials."
The first call was to the U.N.-Arab League special envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, to discuss his recent visit to Damascus. The second was to Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani on Syria, Afghanistan, and financial support for the Palestinian Authority.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton listens to a question during a news conference in Dublin, Ireland, December 6, 2012.
Secretary Clinton was to have returned to work at the State Department this week, but doctors in New York Sunday discovered a blood clot behind her right ear in a vein between her brain and skull.
Doctors said the clot did not result in a stroke or neurological damage. She is being treated with blood thinners and will be released once the proper dosage of that medication is determined.
"In all other aspects of her recovery," her doctors said, "the secretary is making excellent progress" and they are confident she will make a full recovery.
With television crews camped outside Clinton's New York hospital, spokeswoman Nuland said officials will continue to provide updates on her health when appropriate.
"We will continue to keep you updated as we have new information to share as we have been doing all the way along," she said.
Clinton's illness forced her to postpone testimony before Congress on the September attacks against the U.S. mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Clinton has promised to appear before the House and Senate committees investigating that violence, and Nuland said they are still working to arrange that, dependent on the health of the secretary and the schedule of Congress.
