Former US president Bill Clinton was rushed to a top New York hospital yesterday evening for heart bypass surgery after suffering chest pains and shortness of breath.
"He was admitted ... and is scheduled to have bypass surgery," his wife, U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, said. "He went to our local hospital yesterday complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath."
"He came back early this morning for additional tests and the doctors advised him to have bypass surgery as soon as he could," she said during a visit to the New York State Fair in Syracuse, New York.
By mid-afternoon, Mrs Clinton and her daughter Chelsea (24) had arrived at New York-Presbyterian Hospital's Milstein Pavilion to be with him, police at the scene said.
Still popular despite the sex scandals that dogged his presidency, Mr Clinton, a former governor of Arkansas, has been active giving speeches and writing and promoting his best-selling memoir since leaving office in 2001.
During his White House years, Clinton was often overweight despite his regular jogging. But he showed no signs of heart problems in the rigorous health examinations made public during his presidency. More recently he has looked trim, something he has attributed to the South Beach diet, which excludes processed foods and favours lean meat.
Sources at New York-Presbyterian, one of the nation's top cardiac hospitals, said the surgery could take place as soon as Saturday.