President Joe Biden will temporarily transfer power this Friday to Vice President Kamala Harris while he is under anesthesia for a routine colonoscopy, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
“The vice president will work from her west wing office during this period,” Psaki said in a statement.
Biden, who turns 79 on Saturday (20), arrived on Friday morning at Walter Reed Medical Center to undergo a routine annual exam, the first since becoming president of the United States.
It is routine for a vice president to assume presidential powers while the president undergoes a medical procedure that requires anesthesia.
The US Constitution says that the president can send a letter to the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the Senate.
The letter must state that both are “unable to fulfill the powers and duties of their office, and until he gives them a written statement to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be exercised by the Vice President in his capacity as Acting President.”
Biden’s health history
Biden is the oldest first-term president in US history, and the latest comprehensive update on the US president’s medical history was released nearly two years ago when his presidential campaign released a three-page summary of his medical history in December of 2019.
Biden’s physician since 2009, Kevin O’Connor described the then president as “a healthy and vigorous 77-year-old man.”
The 2019 abstract showed that Biden was being treated for non-valvular atrial fibrillation, or AFib – an irregular heartbeat that has no symptoms.
Biden was taking Crestor to lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as Eliquis to prevent blood clots, Nexium for acid reflux and Allegra and a nasal spray for seasonal allergies.
The most significant medical event in Biden’s history, wrote O’Connor, was when Biden suffered a brain aneurysm in 1988. He was serving in the Senate at the time. During surgery, doctors found a second aneurysm that had not bled, which they also treated.
While in hospital after surgery, Biden suffered deep vein thrombosis and a pulmonary embolism.
Doctors at the time inserted an “inferior vena cava filter,” which would prevent future blood clots from reaching the heart and lungs, and treated him with an oral anticoagulant for several months.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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Reference: CNN Brasil
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