As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recovers from a blood clot in her leg at a New York hospital, here’s a bit of news that might cheer her up: Clinton has once again been chosen as the most admired woman in America by the annual USA Today/Gallup poll.
The clot in Clinton’s leg appears to be related to the concussion she suffered earlier this month when she fell after fainting from a stomach virus and hit her head. Clinton, 65, “is being treated with anticoagulants and is at New York-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours,” State Department spokesman Phillippe Reines said in a statement, The New York Times reported.
While Reines did not disclose the exact location of the clot, Dr. Allen Taylor, chief of cardiology at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., told Bloomberg News that it’s common for clots to form in the legs in patients who are less mobile. Taylor said that might be the case for Clinton, who has been largely sedentary as she recovers from the concussion, and who spends long amounts of time sitting on long-distance air flights.
In a recent update from CNN, “The clot was located in the vein between the brain and and the skull behind Clinton’s right ear and did not result in any stroke or neurological damage, her doctors said in a statement.”
Clinton also had a deep vein thrombosis, another name for clot, in 1998 when she was First Lady and had it behind her right knee. She told the Daily News in 2007 that it was “the most significant health scare I’ve ever had.”
As for the USA Today poll, it was the 16th time since 1993 Clinton has been chosen by poll respondents as America’s most admired woman, and it marks the 10th time in a row for her.
President Obama was once again the most admired man, though his vote total this year after winning reelection nearly doubled from last year. His wife Michelle Obama was the second most admired woman, swapping places with Oprah Winfrey, who was second last year while Michelle was third. Former secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was No. 4, while former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Queen Elizabeth II, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenage girl activist gravely wounded by the Taliban for daring to go to school, were tied at fifth.
For the men, Nelson Mandela, the 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero just released from the hospital, was second, while former president George W. Bush is now in a four-way tie for third with defeated Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the Rev. Billy Graham and Pope Benedict XVI.
