Posted on 07/27/2009 12:50:49 PM PDT by Cincinna
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was discharged Monday from the hospital where he spent the night after collapsing while jogging. Doctors said his illness was due to heat and overwork and ordered the 54-year-old to rest but prescribed no further medical treatment, his office said.
Sarkozy, dressed in a dark suit and tie, walked hand-in-hand with his wife, Carla, from Val de Grace military hospital to his car. He smiled and shook hands with white-clad medical personnel but declined any comment.
Medical tests Monday on Sarkozy's heart showed no signs of irregular heartbeat and no long term consequences for the president's heart. Doctors diagnosed Sarkozy with "lipothymic" discomfort due to overexertion at high temperatures in a "context of fatigue linked to a large workload," a statement from the president's office said.
"A lipothymic incident is not a diagnosis, it is a symptom," Gabriel Steg, a professor of cardiology at Paris' Bichat Hospital, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It's a sensation of fainting that corresponds with a variety of illnesses and causes, many of which are very common and banal but which also can be serious in certain cases."
However, Steg said the incident appeared "benign" and was common among people who seriously engaged in physical activities.
Tests showed no neurological or metabolic consequences, the statement also said, adding that Sarkozy suffered no "loss of consciousness," contradicting earlier reports from senior French officials.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
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Thank God this was a benign incident, and Sarko will be back, up and running in a few days
Understandably, the French are very suspicious about Presidential health bulletins. The President of France’s health was a closely guarded secret in former times, part of his “private life” protection. There was also downright lying and misleading.
The French only learned that former President Georges Pompidou had bone marrow cancer only after he died of it, while in office, on April 2, 1974.
Former President Francois Mitterrand, who led France from 1981-95 and died of prostate cancer just months after leaving office, ordered his doctor to systematically falsify his health bulletins for 11 years. Mitterand had been diagnosed with prostate cancer BEFORE he ran for President.
If they’re worried about heat and overwork, then sending M. le president home to the fetching Mme. Sarkozy is perhaps not the best idea.
Conspiracy theorists love this stuff!
Jogging when it's 84 degrees.
Thanks Cincinna.
Bon Jour!
My husband and I are in France for three weeks and it has been a great experience.
Other than the weather being fantastic, the changes I have seen since our last visit three years ago are amazing!
All of France seems to be clean!
People are actually working!
We have not seen a strike since we have been here!
The French were actually praying for Sarkozy and worried about their President!
The French love Carla!
Of course, par for the course, those in Paris, Lyon and Marsaille, are still grumbling about Sarko, their pensions and the end of the world coming soon.
I believe that Sarko is making a change and one that I see quite clearly. Everyone is abuzz that Sarko will run again in 2012.
Merci beaucoup for fascinating on the spot reporting.
The things you are reporting are wonderful to hear. They are living examples that Sarko has made enormous changes in France in his very short time in office.
Don’t forget to go to ANGELINA, on Rue de Rivoli, for Chocolat Africain, the most amazing hot chocolate in the universe. Another MUST! is BERTHILLON on the Ile Saint Louis for sorbet and ice cream. They might close for August, but you should try and get over there.
Looking forward to a full report on your trip when you return.
Bon Voyage and Godspeed.
They lie about everything.
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