Prez Trump condition worrying with the next 48 hours
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump is doing “very well” in his hospital treatment for Covid-19, his medics said Saturday, but a source with knowledge of the US president’s condition said his vital signs had been worrying, with the next 48 hours critical.
US President Donald Trump, who was hospitalised after testing positive for coronavirus, on Saturday clarified about his health saying that he is feeling very well after reports quoting sources claimed his condition being ‘very concerning’ over the last 24 hours.
“Doctors, Nurses and ALL at the GREAT Walter Reed Medical Center, and others from likewise incredible institutions who have joined them, are AMAZING!!! Tremendous progress has been made over the last 6 months in fighting this PLAGUE. With their help, I am feeling well! (sic),” President Trump tweeted.
The clarification came after a source familiar with President Trump’s health said his condition has been “very concerning” over the last 24 hours contradicting US President’s medical team who informed that the US President is doing really well in the hospital and he didn’t have a fever for the last 24 hours.
Trump is up and walking, has been fever free for 24 hours and his cough, nasal congestion and fatigue are improving, physician Sean Conley said during the first medical update on his status since the president was admitted to Walter Reed military medical center Friday.
Members of Trump’s medical team at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said the president is fever-free and that they are “extremely happy” with the progress he has made. But the team refused to answer key questions about when the president was first diagnosed and first symptomatic, and whether he had received supplemental oxygen.
“We have monitored his cardiac function, his kidney function, liver function. All of those are normal,” another member of the medical team, Sean Dooley said. But a source familiar with the president’s health gave a much more worrying assessment.
“The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care,” the source said. “We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”The White House has not commented on the assessment.
Conley was evasive when asked whether Trump had received supplementary oxygen at any point since falling ill, only confirming that he hadn’t received any at the hospital or on Thursday — the day he had his test.
This leaves the possibility that he was on oxygen at the White House on Friday before being admitted to Walter Reed, and there were reports in US media, unconfirmed by AFP, that this was the case.
Soon after Trump arrived at hospital, Conley said in a memo that the president was starting a course of therapeutic drug remdesivir and had received an eight-gram dose of an experimental polyclonal antibody cocktail.
Conley would not put a “hard date” on Trump’s discharge from hospital or disclose the president’s temperature. The latest is campaign advisor Chris Christie, who was among several aides that helped Trump prepare for the first presidential debate that have since announced positive tests.
Three senators as well as Trump’s campaign manager and other senior aides are among a growing list from the president’s orbit to have contracted the virus, with at least seven confirmed cases tied to an event in the White House Rose Garden last weekend.
With Trump, who is trailing in the polls, knocked off the campaign trail for treatment Walter Reed army medical center outside Washington — and possibly for many days after — his campaign plans were in disarray ahead of a potentially messy election on November 3.
Among the unknowns were the prospects for two remaining presidential debates and whether the president will have to yield power temporarily to Vice President Mike Pence if his condition worsens.
(With Inputs from Media reports).
