Bernie Sanders Hospitalized for Heart Procedure, Cancels Campaign Events – The New York Times, The New York Times

SenatorBernie Sanderswas hospitalized and treated for an artery blockage and is canceling his events for the coming days, a campaign official said on Wednesday.

“During a campaign event yesterday evening, Senator Sanders experienced some chest discomfort,” Jeff Weaver, a longtime adviser to Mr. Sanders, said in a statement. “Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted. Senator Sanders is conversing and in good spirits. 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. ”

Mr. Sanders, 78, was traveling fora gun forum in Las Vegasthat other candidates were also scheduled to attend. He was to travel to California later this week. He is currently recovering in a Las Vegas hospital, the campaign said.

Mr. Weaver read the statement to staffers on a quickly assembled conference call at 10 : 30 am Eastern time, according to an aide on the call. No one on the staff asked questions following his statement, which the aide said Mr. Weaver read in measured tones.

One campaign aide, referring to Mr. Sanders, told The New York Times on Wednesday morning: “He feels better than ever because that’s how people feel after they get a stent and there’s more blood flow.”

Mr . Sanders has kept up a brutal schedule on the campaign trail, typically holding multiple events in several cities a day. Over the weekend, he held several events at colleges in New Hampshire. Following his trips this week to Nevada and California, he had been expected to travel to Iowa this weekend, according to a campaign aide.

The Sanders campaign had planned to go on air with his first television ads of the campaign this week in Iowa, announcing a two-week $ 1.3 million buy on Tuesday. An ad tracking service, Medium Buying, said on Wednesday that Mr. Sandersbegan canceling those ads. The reason for the cancellation was not immediately known. Even as late as Tuesday night, Faiz Shakir, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, was talking excitedly about the ad buy on a call with supporters.

On the trail, Mr. Sanders’s events are usually high-energy affairs, where he regales enthusiastic crowds with his calls for “Medicare for all” and tuition-free public college and rails against the corporate and Washington elite. In recent weeks, he has struggled with a hoarse voice that emerged during a swing through Iowa and Colorado and then worsened heading into the last debate in mid-September. He subsequently canceled several events last month to “rest his voice” but has since returned to campaign trail.

In March, he hit his head on the edge of a glass shower door, requiring seven stitches.

The onetime captain of his high school track team, Mr. Sanders has tried to project an image of fitness as a candidate. He pitched in the softball game his campaign staged over the summer on Iowa’s “Field of Dreams” and his aides have released other images of him playing catch or shooting a basketball. When he’s on the road, Mr. Sanders often heads to an open gymnasium to shoot baskets.