President Clinton`s Health

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said today that her and President Clinton feel blessed that his artery blockage was discovered in time for him to have successful heart bypass surgery. She said the relief is just overwhelming and that her husband is "really doing well." Clinton said the former president is "following the orders of doctors, nurses and everyone else who told him what he should do to begin slowly gaining his strength back." Clinton said she and daughter Chelsea are taking turns watching over his recovery and that it should take from six to eight weeks. The former president had quadruple heart bypass surgery on September Sixth and was released from New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia in New York City last Friday. Clinton said her husband is disappointed he can`t hit the campaign trail on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, but that she will try to pick up the slack. She said there are some events that the couple were going to attend together that she will now go to alone. Hillary Clinton said she had a message for everyone in the wake of the experience. She said she hopes this very public medical emergency encourages men and women to have checkups, to have their cholesterol measured, to not ignore any signs of pain or distress, and to take heart disease seriously.