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White House Physician to:
President George H.W. Bush, President Bill Clinton
, and President George W. Bush that makes her the longest serving White House physician in U.S.
history. She is the first woman Director of the White House Medical Unit.
In June 1992, she became the
first military woman to serve as White House physician under President George Bush. When he got elected, President Clinton
asked her to stay and even promoted her as Senior White House Physician in February 1994 and director of the White House Medical
Unit.
President Clinton said he had qualms when Mariano, a member of the medical staff in the Bush administration,
was proposed to be his full-time physician in the first months of his administration. "This woman's going to be poking around
on me for eight years," Mr. Clinton said he thought at that time. He noted that she now has served in a stressful job longer
than any other White House physician.
By attending to two American presidents for more than eight years, Mariano is
by far the longest serving White House physician in American history. She is also the first woman commander of the White House
Medical Unit.
A few months ago, when the first swine-flu cases emerged in the U.S. and Americans were warned to avoid
Mexico, guess who had just been there on a trip? President Barack Obama. While most people who’d recently gone to that
country rushed to their doctors to find out if they were okay, the President did not. That’s because, night and day,
he has a medical team watching—and treating—h is every cough and sneeze.
"Physician to the President" is the formal title given to each M.D. who has led the White House Medical Unit since it
was founded in 1945. Dr. Jeffrey C. Kuhlman, a Navy captain, currently holds that position. Indicating the importance of the
job, he has an office across the hall from his No. 1 patient. "You become a lot like a family," says Dr. Connie Mariano, a
retired Navy rear admiral and former top doctor for President Bill Clinton.
"I was one of the first people to see
the President at the start of the day and one of the last at the end of the day," recalls Dr. Richard Tubb, an Air Force brigadier
general who was chief physician for the bulk of President George W. Bush’s time in office. "I saw the stresses and how
the job impacted his health, happiness, and family."
The White House contains a full medical clinic, complete with
exam rooms, life-support equipment, and imaging tools. It is staffed by six or seven physicians—six from the military
and, at times, one civilian. Also on duty are nurses, medical assistants, and medics. Their patient list encompasses the administration’s
inner circle, including the Vice President, Cabinet members, and senior officials. "By taking care of those who take care
of the President, we’re de facto taking care of the President," Dr. Tubb says. "If his speechwriter isn’t 100%,
it’s a greater challenge for the President to be 100%."
The medical unit also treats visiting heads of state
and other guests at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as well as VIPs encountered on the President’s travels. Dr. Mariano once
checked Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat after he injured his leg while in Norway for peace talks. "He was so grateful, he
knelt down and kissed my hand," she says. Another time, she had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on a foreign dignitary who
started choking on a piece of shrimp in the White House’s State Dining Room.
One big challenge for the top doctor
is planning for the President’s many trips. Dr. Tubb likens it to managing a "small-scale military deployment" involving
a traveling medical unit and coordination of the best facilities and physicians wherever the Commander in Chief is going.
The team must be prepared for every scenario, from a medical emergency like a heart attack or stroke to a chemical, biological,
or radiological assault.
But even an average day in D.C. can be tough. The President and his administration, all type-A
personalities, "want to be healthy right away," Dr. Mariano says. "If the President is sick, it’s not his problem—it’s
your problem. You need to fix him right away."
Besides medical expertise, the "First Physician" needs to possess a
quality that is not taught in school. He or she must have the guts to stand up to our country’s leader and say, "Sir,
respectfully, I think you should"—fill in the blank—"stay in bed, exercise more, not eat those desserts." Dr.
Mariano says she attempted, in vain, to convince President Clinton to rest his voice, which was often hoarse due to allergies.
She also remembers trying to persuade Hillary Clinton to have a swollen leg checked right away, rather than wait. The First
Lady finally relented, a fortunate decision since she turned out to have a blood clot.
"Most of our patients are difficult
patients," Dr. Mariano says. "They are not compliant. They don’t think the rules apply." But when all else fails, she
has this advice for the top doctor: "If he gives you a hard time, say, ‘Well, I’ll just have to tell the First
Lady.’ He instantly will say, ‘Okay, I’ll listen, I’ll listen.’" Sometimes, just like millions
of us, all a President needs is a little prod from his spouse
A chance for private care
Retired Navy Rear Adm. E. Connie Mariano, MD, treats President Bill Clinton in the White House's private quarters after
his 1997 quadricep surgery. Dr. Mariano changed the way the president's health care is delivered by instituting mandated 24-hour
coverage from White House physicians.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/09/23/cnna.mariano
Connie Mariano: Doctor to the president
Friday, September 24, 2004 Posted: 1944 GMT (0344 HKT)
Editor's Note: CNN Access is a regular feature on CNN.com providing interviews
with newsmakers from around the world.
(CNN) -- Dr. E. Connie Mariano knows what it's like to keep up with the most
important man in America. Until Dr. Richard Tubb, an Air Force colonel, took over the White House
medical unit, Mariano addressed the health issues of presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.
Now an executive health physician at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, Mariano spoke with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta about being the president's
doctor.
GUPTA: "Former physician to the president."
That job has a lot of different titles. What are some of them?
MARIANO: The president's doctor, the White
House doctor, senior White House physician. I tell people that you know who is in charge because you are the physician who
gets blamed if something happens to the president.
GUPTA: What is a typical day like?
MARIANO: It varies ... It depends on his schedule,
because the medical unit has 24-hour coverage, seven days a week. You have a medical provider with him, and if he has a major
event or a trip that day, the doctor is always within a few feet away. So you essentially shadow the president.
GUPTA: You write that you are always a heartbeat
away, outside the kill zone, for the president. What does that mean?
MARIANO: Where the president is, in the unfortunate
use, that's the kill zone, that's where the bad guys want to hurt him. The medical unit really exists to take care of the
president in those scenarios where his life is in danger. The president's life is always in danger, unfortunately, in this
day and age. The role of White House physician is to be close enough to him so that if he needs to be resuscitated, you are
there with him as a first responder.
GUPTA: Your primary patient is no typical patient.
He's also a target. How do you deal with that?
MARIANO: You prepare. One of the things that
really helped me early on in my job at the White House was advice given to me by [one of] President [George H.W.] Bush's Secret
Service agents ... He told me essentially, it isn't 'if' it is going to happen ... it is 'when' it is going to happen. So
you prepare, because it will happen eventually, the scenario where something bad will happen to the president. The medical
unit focused on the scenarios and contingency planning for the bad outcomes.
GUPTA: When President Clinton took office and
you were the doctor, what sort of challenges did President Clinton offer up?
MARIANO: He was younger than the previous president.
He was predictably unpredictable. He had a lot of energy. He was always on the go. So the template that was used for the previous
president didn't apply to the new president.
With the previous presidents, the medical unit essentially went home in the
evening. There was no medical care at night and that bothered me, because if the president had a heart attack or fell down
and needed care you would have to call someone to come into the house. That had been done for about a hundred years before,
but we were entering a new era, when you really needed 24-hour on-site assistance. As a result we said, 'listen, from now
on, from this day forth, you will have 24-hour coverage.'
GUPTA: What would you do if there wasn't a
hospital close by when he was traveling?
MARIANO: You bring your hospital. I think one
of the fascinating, challenging things about being a White House doctor was making the assets happen, creating assets to support
him. The beauty of the military is you say, 'listen, we need help, we need a hospital,' and the military will provide one
-- in the sense that they will give you a 707 [airplane] with a surgical team with an anesthesiologist, a trauma surgeon,
what have you, that would follow your airplane where you needed to go.
GUPTA: I'm sure as a doctor, you have a patient-physician
relationship that should not be breached. So there are things that you may know about the president that the rest of the public
does not.
MARIANO: Therein lies the challenge of [being
a] White House doctor. You have to respect the patient's privacy, but this is a patient like no other. Their decisions impact
millions of lives.
Very similar, for example, is the role in the military. You have a jet pilot
who is a pilot on an F-14 or a jet plane, and if that pilot is incapacitated, they will crash their plane. They will kill
people. You are obligated to ground them. So in the role of the president's [doctor], we're obligated, No. 1, to take care
of the patient. You do what is appropriate medically to get them clear, but then you also enlist the aid of their spouse and
the people in their circle.
Then you have to be honest and say, 'I am obligated to also notify the appropriate
people because I don't think your condition will allow you to do your job.' And you have to be forward about that.
GUPTA: Did you ever want to ground the president,
but didn't?
MARIANO: I think one of the challenges was
when [Clinton] tore his quadriceps tendon in 1997. We were
at Bethesda [Naval Hospital]
and he announced to the world that he was going to Helsinki [Finland] in a couple of days. And you just think, 'Oh my goodness, we don't let
anybody do that.' You risk infection, blood clots, or what have you. You are getting on an airplane, flying across the world,
and he was insistent.
You wish you could ground him. 'You know, you're on crutches. You should
be resting. You should be doing what most patients do.' And he was very insistent. 'I'm going. I'm going to Helsinki. I'm meeting with the Russian president there.' We said, 'OK, then we're going to
bring our medical team.'
Source:
http://clinton6.nara.gov/2001/01/2001-01-17-statement-by-physician-to-president-rear-admiral-mariano.html
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release January 16, 2001 STATEMENT BY PHYSICIAN TO THE PRESIDENT
REAR ADMIRAL E. CONNIE MARIANO
During President Clinton's physical examination on January 12 at
the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, a lesion on his back suspicious for skin cancer was excised. The pathology
results read this morning confirmed that the lesion was a superficial basal cell skin cancer. Pathologists noted that the
margins of the lesion appeared "clean" indicating that the lesion had been totally removed. In addition, at the time of the
biopsy, the President elected to have the tissue surrounding the lesion treated superficially with "scraping and burning"
in the event the lesion was to be confirmed as skin cancer.
Overall, the President is in good health. The President's risk of recurrence of basal cell skin cancer is low, but he faces
a higher risk than the population at large of developing a new lesion in the future due to his fair skin and years of sun
exposure. The President will be seen in four to six months by a dermatologist. If there is no evidence of new lesions at the
time of follow-up, he will be examined annually.
30-30-30
http://www.massmed.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home6&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=3531
The Physician in the White House
"I've
always liked medicine in unusual settings," says Eleanor C. ("Connie") Mariano, M.D., Director of the White House Medical
Unit and Physician to the President of the United States. Dr. Mariano was in Boston recently, speaking at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the
MMS Alliance.
The first female military White House Physician and the first female director of the White
House Medical Unit, Dr. Mariano says her job keeps her attached to two beepers. She is on call 24 hours a day to provide comprehensive
medical care to the president, vice president, their families -- and others.
"We are a traveling medicine show," says Dr. Mariano, who notes that while her patients
are relatively few, safeguarding their health takes her and her staff of 20 around the globe.
An internist, she is assisted by four physicians, including a specialist in emergency
medi-cine, four physician assistants, four critical care and emergency medicine trained nurses, plus medics and administrative
staff members -- all members of the U.S. Army, Navy, or Air Force. All were employed by the White House after top recommendations
and lengthy security checks.
Dr. Mariano began her work at the White House in 1992 after a career that included numerous
naval awards and commendations. A captain in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, she had been Director of the Internal Medicine Clinic
at the Naval Hospital in San Diego, a 500-plus bed tertiary care teaching hospital and the Navy's largest training hospital.
One of four White House physicians in the early 1990s, she and the others served under
both Presidents Bush and Clinton. She notes that, unlike former president Bush, who came with his own personal physician,
President Clinton did not. She met the Clintons on the third
day of his administration and "they grew to trust me." She recalls that when her tour of duty ended, Clinton said, "You can't leave me . . . you're my doctor . . . you need to stay." In 1994
she was named Physician to the President of the United States
and Director of the White House Medical Unit, and will hold these posts until January 20, 2001.
Headquarters for the White House Medical Unit and her office are on the ground floor of
the White House, right across from an elevator Clinton uses
daily.
One physician is always on the White House premises, remaining through the night.
An additional part of the Medical Unit is a clinic housed in the Old Executive Office
Building, where most patients are seen. Also in that building is a Medical Intelligence Center, where computers maintain a library of information on hospitals around the world.
When a president travels -- and that can be one third to one half of his time -- staff must check hospitals at travel destinations
and routes to the hospital from where he is working and staying.
Dr. Mariano travels with Clinton
much of the time, and stays a few doors down in the hotels. "On the road when we travel with the president, we wear radios
with an ear piece," she says. "You can't distinguish us from the Secret Service."
She adds that not only are the first families cared for by the Medical Unit, occasionally
so are international leaders, their families, and staff. Medical staff also care for Secret Service, military personnel, and
others assigned to the White House, and even White House tourists who take ill.
Dr. Mariano notes that in the White House Medical Unit patient confidentiality is especially
safeguarded. "I don't put medical information on a computer," she says. "I type it out and it's locked away -- in a vault.
The only one who has access is myself." She recalls that when Bush left office, she personally handed him his medical records
to give to his next physician, and she plans to do the same for Clinton.
Married, with two sons, ages 8 and 10, Dr. Mariano says that keeping close family ties
is an important stress reducer in an environment such as Washington, D.C. Her husband is an attorney who works part-time for a law firm and, for now, has primary
responsibility for their boys.
"The toughest part is you're away so much," Dr. Mariano says. "My children are used to
saying, 'Mommy, are you going to be here tomorrow?' My younger one says, 'Why do you have to go with the president? Why don't
you get another job?'"
But a compensation is the people with whom she comes in contact. "Obviously, the first
family is wonderful," she notes. "But, I always think the people in the Secret Service are outstanding, as well as members
of the military office, military aids, the people who work in the White House communications, and the ushers who've been there
for years." In her job, she says, "You meet the most incredible people."
- Bernadine Cassell
Power Trip
By Bill Clinton
Recovering from His Famous Fall, the President Learns What It's Like to Be Hobbled by Injury
It was the pop heard
round the world. At 1:20 a.m. on March 14, President William Jefferson Clinton slipped on a dimly lit wooden step outside
the home of Greg Norman in Hobe Sound, Fla.—landing in the golf pro's arms. Instead of breaking 80, as he had hoped
to do during a charity golf tournament later that day, the First Duffer, like an estimated 7,000 Americans each year, had
ruptured his quadriceps tendon—the connective tissue that binds the powerful muscles of the thigh to the kneecap. Instantly,
the presidential patella became the most closely scrutinized kneecap since Nancy Kerrigan's, with pundits speculating on how
a famously active Chief Executive would weather such a setback.
From the beginning, the President seemed determined
to rise to the challenge, which, in light of such other woes as Whitewater and Paula Jones, appeared to add injury to insult.
His orthopedic odyssey began with a brief trip to the emergency room of St. Mary's Hospital in West Palm Beach. (He had made
the Florida trip without the First Lady, who had remained in Washington.) After having the knee stabilized there, he was transferred
to Air Force One and flown to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. By 2 p.m. he was being prepped for surgery at Bethesda Naval
Hospital.
Clinton, 50, made it clear he would accept only painkillers that would allow him to remain alert during
the two-hour procedure. Given an epidural, he was able to appreciate the music he had chosen—Lyle Lovett and Jimmy Buffett—while
the surgical team drilled four holes in his right kneecap, stitched through the torn edges of his tendon and pulled the thread
through the kneecap to reattach it. "He had a great attitude throughout," reports his personal physician, Navy
Capt. Connie Mariano. "They put a sheet in front of him so he couldn't see what they were doing, but from
time to time he would ask me what was going on."
Two days after the surgery, Clinton returned to a transformed White
House. In the private quarters, carpets had been taped down, the Clintons' bedroom had been rearranged, and handrails had
been installed in his bathroom. A team of physical therapists was on hand to help the President dress, master his knee brace
and begin exercises to keep his knee from stiffening.
On March 19, Clinton flew to Helsinki for a meeting with Russian
President Boris Yeltsin. (Though his surgeons had misgivings, says Captain Mariano,
"I told them, You can't talk him out of it.' ") The three-day trip made him aware of just how painful it was to be immobilized
in a wheelchair with his leg extended, and he subsequently cut back his schedule—canceling a jaunt to Baltimore to throw
out the Orioles' season's first ball and postponing a South American visit.
Fortunately, the President's overall fitness
and commitment to physical therapy speeded his recovery, and he graduated from crutches to a cane three weeks ahead of schedule.
On May 23, the President met with PEOPLE'S Washington bureau chief, Garry Clifford, to talk about his recuperation. Leaning
on a handcarved cane presented to him May 7 during his visit to Mexico, he took great delight in showing off a new adjustable
brace. "Now I can bend my knee!" he crowed. "lean basically walk like you!"
IT WAS JUST A LITTLE STEP, AND MY foot
came down on the edge. I sensed I was slipping. I pulled back so my foot was turned in and my knee went out, and it popped
real loud. It was so loud that Greg Norman, who was about 8 or 10 feet in front of me, turned around and caught me as I fell.
He saved me from a much more serious injury because I could have hit my knee or torn the whole thing. As it was, I tore 90
percent of the quadriceps. When I was lying on the ground I was just praying I hadn't torn it. But I thought it had to be
something terrible because the pop was like a thunderclap. It felt like someone was pulling my leg off. I don't know if this
is the most intense pain I've ever had. I had a kidney stone 30 years ago that hurt. And this hurt.
My anesthesiologist
said he'd done the surgery for 20 years, and he'd never seen anybody have the operation without narcotics. But I didn't want
to take a powerful analgesic and have to sign over the authority of the Presidency. There had already been such a stir about
the injury, I didn't want to cause any more and convince people that there was something terribly wrong. So I just did it.
At Helsinki, we thought the safest thing to do was to use a wheelchair because I was fresh out of the hospital. I
wasn't very strong, and I hadn't had a lot of experience on crutches. I didn't have pain then—it was discomfort. It's
a lot of strain on your hamstring if you've got your leg straight out all the time and you've got to sit.
In the beginning
of my rehab, I was just trying to make sure I didn't fall. The first thing we started practicing was going up and down stairs.
And the therapists also did a lot of work on having me move around safely with the crutches and dealing with the fact that
the movements caused a lot of muscle discomfort in my back.
It was difficult for me in the beginning. I couldn't dress
myself; I couldn't get to the shower without help getting my brace off. I've always been self-sufficient. I was an only child
until I was 10, and my parents both worked. I was 29 when I got married; until then, I basically did everything. I cooked,
I took care of my house, I did all that kind of stuff. Hillary always laughs that she married me because I didn't mind making
the beds and going to the grocery store. So accepting not being able to dress myself was difficult for me.
The physical
therapists did a great thing: They rigged up my shower with pipes so that I could get myself in the shower, lift myself and
then hold on. I could have that hot water pounding down on my back in the morning, which made me feel great.
I have
always felt great compassion and support for people with disabilities. But now I have an understanding that I didn't before
about the inner strength and dignity it takes to live when you are at least superficially disabled—when you can't do
things for yourself, when you don't have the mobility that others do. You realize that your condition will change, but a lot
of people's don't. And yet they still get up every day. They still go to work. They still do their jobs. They make a contribution
to our country.
I spent as much time as I could working on the crutches. I also tried to wear shoes that had rubber
soles. I practiced on steps a lot, but the night of the Canadian state dinner, April 9, I had some concern. I have really
big feet—13C—so going down narrow stairs was tough. In the White House, there's a little carpet that runs down
every step. So we had to go through and make sure the carpet was flat so I wouldn't slip. On state occasions everybody is
watching, and you don't want to blow it. You don't want the story of the Canadian visit to be "President falls down stairs."
I was a little concerned, but it worked out fine.
Another challenge was knowing I had to work hard to keep from gaining
weight because I wasn't going to be as active as I had been. My physician, Dr. Mariano,
predicted I would gain 20 pounds before this was over. I didn't think that was a good idea, especially because it would put
more weight on the leg. Over the last year and a half I had dropped 10 or 15 pounds. But I decided I wanted to lose some more
weight and that it would be good for my knee. I cut back to two meals a day—lunch and dinner—and started eating
fruit instead of dessert. I still have one or two of those wonderful bagels my assistant brings in on the weekend. I weighed
about 210 when I got hurt, and I weigh around 200 now. I'd like to lose a little more and weigh what I did when I went to
college, between 192 and 195. When I'm lighter, I just feel better.
When this happened to me, I decided I was going
to use it as an opportunity to learn about how my body was aging. Every day is kind of interesting. The most important thing
I've learned is how to do the proper stretching exercises associated with not only running but just moving through the day.
And because of my physical therapists, I know a lot more about how to do the right kind of weight work. Before, I wouldn't
start with light enough weights, and I didn't do enough repetitions. I did a lot of things that might help your strength but
don't help your flexibility. And as we get older, most people lose an awful lot of their flexibility.
Another thing
I learned was that even people who have good upper-body strength lose it as they get older. They have back pain and neck pains
because the muscles in their back get weak. Working at a desk, we tend to roll our shoulders forward. So right from the beginning
the therapists had me holding a little piece of rubber hose in front of me, pulling on it, and that would push my shoulder
blades back.
As a federal employee, I have a good health insurance policy. I pay 20 percent copayment. It would be
terrible to have this happen to you without any insurance. But the thing that has enabled me to recover so well is not available
to most people. I've had great physical therapy every day. Six days a week, I do two sessions a day. A lot of times people
have these knee injuries and they have to go back to work too soon. Maybe they get physical therapy once or twice a week.
I'm convinced it's not enough. Now that I've been through this, if I could do anything, I would like to see people's health
insurance policies cover an adequate amount of physical therapy.
I still have to ice my knee all the time. My good
knee is 41 centimeters around, and my bum knee is 43 in the morning when I wake up. But it has been as high as 48, and that's
a big difference. There's a lot of edema because of the brace. They tell me that even after six months, when I can jog again,
I'll only have about 80 percent of my strength back in my knee. But if I start off 10 pounds lighter, I think I may have a
quicker recovery.
I was on the crutches eight weeks before I graduated to the cane. Now that it's warm I miss running.
I miss golf, because when the weather gets warmer, for me it's like a tonic out there. The other day I tried out the White
House putting green. I just wanted to see if I could do it. I must say I wasn't very good. But otherwise I'm doing fine. Even
though I can only kick one leg, I can swim. And I can do most everything else. On May 22,1 got a new knee brace, which is
going to make it better still. With it, I can bend my knee, and it takes the pressure off my back. They tell me they're hoping
to take my cane away the first week in June, so I'll just walk with the brace for a couple of months after that.
People
have asked me if I get crabby being cooped up. About the only time I get crabby is when I'm too tired. If I'm tired and I
have a lot of heavy days in a row and I don't have any free time, then I get—you just want a little elbow room. I told
somebody the other day I knew I was growing up, because if this had happened to me 10 years ago, every morning I'd probably
have gotten out of bed mad. And I haven't felt that at all. I've learned about how our bodies work, and how we deal with trauma.
It's been fascinating to me.
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Published
on Saturday, March 18, 2000 - Provided by the White House
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Who's Going? White House
Travel Manifest For India , Pakistan & Bangladesh |
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WASHINGTON - President Clinton's Trip to Bangladesh , India and Pakistan
March
18-26, 2000
The President
departs Washington , D.C in the afternoon of Saturday, March 18, and will arrive in New Delhi , India on the evening of Sunday,
March 19, to begin his South Asia trip. New Delhi is 10 1/2 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
-------------------
Excerpt:
Official Delegation Accompanying
the President to India
The President
Chelsea Clinton
Dorothy Rodham
Richard
Celeste, U.S. Ambassador to India
Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State
William Daley, Secretary
of Commerce
John Podesta, Chief of Staff to the President
Connie Mariano, Physician to the President
Official Delegation to Bangladesh
The President
John Holzman, U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh
Madeleine
Albright, Secretary of State
William Daley, Secretary of Commerce
John Podesta, Chief of Staff to
the President
Connie Mariano, Physician to the President
Official Delegation Accompanying
the President to Pakistan
The President
William Milam, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan
Madeleine
Albright, Secretary of State
John Podesta, Chief of Staff to the President
Samuel Berger, Assistant
to the President for National Security Affairs
Bruce Lindsey, Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the
President
Joseph Lockhart, Assistant to the President and Press Secretary
Connie Mariano, Physician
to the President
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7218964/Bill-Clinton-history-of-health-problems.html
Bill Clinton: history of health problems
Former US president Bill Clinton, who served in the White House from 1993 to 2001, has struggled to control his weight
and cholesterol levels over the past two decades.
Published: 6:30AM GMT 12 Feb 2010
Despite being an avid jogger, he has admitted to a weakness for fast food and a sweet tooth, both of which have placed
strain on his arteries.
In 1997 a physical revealed that Mr Clinton had lowered his weight to 196 pounds (14st) from an unofficial high of 226
pounds (16st) in 1991. The physical reportedly measured his cholesterol level at 179, and his blood pressure at 122 over 68.
However, by his final presidential physical, Mr Clinton's weight had risen again to 214 pounds (15st), his cholesterol
level had increased, and his blood pressure was climbing.
In response, Rear Adm. E. Connie Mariano, the White House's senior physician, prescribed
Mr Clinton cholesterol-lowering medication.
"We gave him things to look at in the future, for him to work on, such as diet, such as exercise," Dr Mariano said
at the time. "I think he'll do very well with that with the new [post-presidential] lifestyle for him."
After the physical, in January 2001, Mr Clinton said: "My cholesterol is a little too high because I haven't exercised,
and I ate all that Christmas dessert. But in six months it will be back to normal. I knew I was doing it, but what the heck.
It was my last time, and I wanted to enjoy it."
In 1996 Mr Clinton has a non-cancerous cyst removed from his neck. The growth, known as an inclusion cyst, was located
near Mr Clinton's left ear at the jawline. It was removed by dermatologist David Corbett in the doctor's office in a 12-minute
procedure that took place on the White House grounds, Michael McCurry said.
"It had grown a little larger in size and certainly a little more bothersome to the president," he said. The cyst - basically
an ingrown pimple - was diagnosed during the president's physical examination.
In 1988, Mr Clinton told an interviewer that he had a family history of heart trouble. Then, in early September 2004, after
he complained of chest pains and shortness of breath, his doctors discover that 90 per cent of his coronary arteries were
clogged and he was grave risk of a heart attack.
To fix the problem, Mr Clinton underwent quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery.
Less than one year after the surgery he was readmitted to hospital for surgery to remove scar tissue that had built up
in his chest after the bypass.
Doctors said they would continue to monitor his progress.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
HILLSBOROUGH
COUNTY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP DINNER MEETING
PRESENTS:
DR. E. CONNIE MARIANO
 In June 1992, Dr. Mariano became the first military woman in American history to be appointed White House Physician.
She was nominated by the Navy and selected by the White House for this honor. In 1994, Dr. Mariano was named Director
of the White House Medical Unit and chosen by President Bill Clinton to serve as his personal physician. Dr. Mariano
was the longest serving White House physician in our nation’s history…serving as physician to three sitting Presidents
in a nine year period. After 24 years of active duty service, Dr. Mariano was also the first Filipino-American in history
to reach the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy.
Now in North Scottsdale, she is the founder and concierge physician for the Center of Executive
Medicine. Dr. Mariano’s memoir, White House Doctor, is due to be published in early 2010. You won’t
want to miss hearing Dr. Mariano’s captivating presentation!
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER TENTH, TWO THOUSAND NINE
INTERCONTINENTAL
HOTEL, TAMPA 4860 W. KENNEDY BOULEVARD
Social
Hour: 6:00PM Dinner & Program: 7:00PM
Spouse/Guest $35.00
*Vegetarian
requests must be received prior to event
RSVP to Julie @ 813.253.0471 OR JFrissell@hcma.net prior to November 4th
SPONSORED BY:
Florida Doctors Insurance Company (FLDIC)
SunTrust Bank
University
Community Hospital
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/healthy-food-presidential-health-a-mystery.html
Posted on May 20, 2008 by Gerald Pugliese
In light of the new presidential fitness test for adults, the Associated Press asks, how much do we really know about our presidents’ health? More from the report:
The job of doctor to the president has an inherent conflict of interest, said Dr. E. Connie Mariano, who was President
Bill Clinton's White House physician.
"If you keep your patient in office, you can keep your job," she noted. "What
happens when your patient can't do his job?"
There's a name for what sometimes happens when world leaders become ill:
The captive-king syndrome, where aides deny a problem and run the country, said medical historian Dr. T. Jock Murray, a Canadian
neurologist. Think Wilson's final stroke, which left his wife and a few others essentially in charge…
…Because
they are "very intimidating patients," Mariano said only half jokingly, doctors can find themselves second-guessing if someone
really needs, say, a rectal exam or other inconvenient test that every other patient would get because it could turn up important
information.
As for noncompliant patients, Bill Clinton was among the healthiest presidents in recent history —
yet needed open-heart surgery after leaving office to avoid a major heart attack, admitting he had quit taking his cholesterol-lowering
medicine.
The 25th Amendment — sparked by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and ratified in 1967
— spells out what happens if a president dies or is disabled and clearly unable to lead. There is a backup team, so
pay attention to potential vice presidents' health, too, Mariano advised.
To quote Wycleff Jean, “If I were president”…I’d be the fittest, healthiest president ever, but, Mike Huckabee might have
given me a run for my money. Check him out:
Eat Dr. Fuhrman’s high-nutrient way, and you will never fail a diet again. I’m now convinced there
is only one sure way to achieve your ideal weight and great health, and that is to eat more high-nutrient foods and exercise
daily.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/13/us/crash-white-house-overview-unimpeded-intruder-crashes-plane-into-white-house.html
CRASH AT THE WHITE HOUSE: THE OVERVIEW
CRASH AT THE WHITE HOUSE: THE OVERVIEW; Unimpeded, Intruder Crashes Plane Into White House
By MAUREEN DOWD,
Published: September 13, 1994
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12— Shortly before 2 A.M. today, a small red-and-white plane flew low over 17th
Street in the heart of the capital's downtown, banked left in a U-turn near the Washington Monument, and headed straight toward
the President's bedroom in the White House.
No one tried to stop it.
Administration officials, who pieced together the flight path, said that the Secret Service agents stationed outside the
South Portico had only seconds to scramble out of the way as the two-seat, propeller-driven Cessna 150, its power apparently
shut off and only its wing lights on, came straight at them.
Gliding over the treetops, the Cessna passed the fountain and the red cannas blooming on the South Lawn, bounced off the
grass just short of the White House, crashed through the branches of a magnolia tree planted by Andrew Jackson and came to
rest in a crumpled heap two stories below the Clintons' unoccupied bedroom.
President Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, were sleeping across Pennsylvania Avenue at Blair
House, the guest house for visiting dignitaries, while repairs were being made to the ventilation system in the White House
residence. The Clintons moved back into the White House today.
The authorities said the plane had been stolen and the pilot was Frank Eugene Corder, a 38-year-old truck driver from Maryland.
His relatives said he had struggled with vertiginous moods, alcohol, a drug conviction, financial problems, the recent rupture
of his third marriage and the death of his father.
Associates said that Mr. Corder, who was killed in the crash, even told a friend last year that he felt so hopeless he
might fly a plane on a suicide mission to the White House. That could not be confirmed.
As the chilling sight of the crumpled airplane at the base of the mansion was beamed around the world, a debate began about
whether White House security was lax.
Security officials said today that the plan for protecting the President against aerial attack relied more on moving him
quickly to safety than on stopping the attack.
Secret Service officials, asserting that their shield around the President himself had not been penetrated, said their
initial conclusion was that Mr. Corder was not trying to kill the President and appeared to have acted alone, though law-enforcement
officials and several agencies would investigate.
Mr. Clinton was awakened at 2:35 A.M. by his chief of staff, Leon E. Panetta, who had been alerted to the 1:49 A.M. crash
through a series of calls set in motion by a military aide who was sleeping in the basement of the White House residence,
Lieut. Comdr. Richard Fitzpatrick. After being told of the crash, the President went back to sleep, aides said.
Mrs. Clinton returned to the family quarters this morning and watched from the Truman balcony above the diplomatic entrance
as Secret Service agents, police officers and firefighters prowled the area, removing the wreckage, hosing away fuel and planting
yellow flags to set off the gouge in the lawn left by the plane.
The South Lawn, where the Middle East peace pact was signed last year, was a remarkable sight today to those who had assumed
that the White House had a sophisticated security system, with anti-aircraft guns and perhaps even rooftop missiles that could
shield the mansion from an aerial intrusion, especially one so unsophisticated. Only 50 yards from
the Oval Office, just around the corner from the Rose Garden, sat the tangle of metal, what was left of the plane's nose inches
from the barred office window of the White House physician, Comdr. E. Connie Mariano, one floor below the State Dining Room.
Near the Patio Furniture
The wreckage sat next to a set of white, wrought-iron patio furniture, across from the wide lawn where bleachers had been
set up in anticipation of an afternoon ceremony today for the National Service plan, a ceremony that was moved. The cockpit
was reminiscent of a crushed beer can, and the tail was tilted up, mostly intact. A tarpolin had been hung over the plane
to conceal its identification numbers. A twisted brown aircraft seat rested in the dirt just left of the wreckage.
The scene was frightening proof of what military and security officials, planning against terrorist attacks, had long privately
believed: that the White House is more vulnerable than anyone admits.
Judging from what happened today, either someone made a terrible security mistake or the integrity of the "secure" air
space around downtown Washington -- one nautical mile on either side of the White House, extending up to 18,000 feet, and
broadening to envelope the Mall, the Capitol and most of the area's well-known monuments and museums -- depends on intruders
playing by the rules.
Passers-by can often see Secret Service agents walking on the White House roof or on duty in an observation post there.
But experts said it would be dangerous to fire missiles in downtown Washington. A hit might send an aircraft crashing into
a nearby landmark, like the Hay Adams Hotel or the Treasury Department. And, as a senior White House official noted today,
"If you missed, E Street becomes pretty ugly, pal."
At a White House briefing this afternoon, a Secret Service official painted a picture of frantic activity and jittery uncertainty
as the Cessna dropped quietly out of the night sky, landing without flame or fireball.
The official, Carl Meyer, said that agents had spotted the plane only after it completed its U-turn toward the White House
and that they only had "enough time to run for cover."
Mr. Meyer added that he did not know if the Federal Aviation Administration's radar had detected the Cessna as it approached
and violated the capital's restricted air space, saying that radar could probably not track a small aircraft flying at tree-top
level, particularly if it was not using a standard electronic device that identifies the aircraft and enhances its image on
radar screens.
Once the plane crashed, officials tried to determine whether the landing was an accident or part of an elaborate assassination
attempt -- and whether the plane might still have explosives aboard.
"The first thing we had to determine was, what was the situation?" Mr. Meyer said. "Was this just a plane that ran out
of gas? Did somebody have a heart attack? We just didn't have a good sense of what was involved here. Or, was it a diversion,
was something going to come?"
Adolphus Roberts, an eyewitness who was on the mall and saw the plane approach from the north, over 17th Street, told investigators
and reporters that the plane had flown near the Washington Monument and then made a left-hand turn toward the White House.
"It had lights on both wings, it turned left and lined up with the White House," he said. "I heard a large boom sound.
There was no fire, no nothing." He said he heard no engine noise, suggesting that Mr. Corder may have cut his engine as he
glided down toward the lawn.
By early morning, the wreckage was already a tourist attraction. No Plans 'Against a Lunatic'
Patrick Porter, 46, a software engineer for General Electric from Portland, Ore., looked at the South Lawn from behind
yellow police tapes. "It just proves you can make all the plans in the world and there's nothing you can do to plan against
a lunatic who doesn't think rationally," he said.
In Aberdeen, a small Maryland town 25 miles northeast of Baltimore, Mr. Corder's brother did not seem to know of any particular
grudge that he might have held against Mr. Clinton. "Shock," said Mr. Corder's brother, John. "Surprise. It hit us right out
of the blue."
After daylight, Mr. Clinton, wearing black jogging clothes and a baseball hat, returned to the White House and later peered
out a window at the wreckage. Both he and his wife sought to play down the incident. In remarks by satellite to new members
of his Americorps volunteer program, the President said that the White House "will be kept safe, and it will be kept open
and the people's business will go on."
Mrs. Clinton told guests that it "has been quite an unusual day here at the White House."
Photos: Frank Eugene Corder, a trucker from Maryland, died when the small, single-engine plane he was piloting crashed
on the South Lawn behind the White House early yesterday, the authorities said. He is shown in a 1993 photograph, above. At
top, an investigator by the wreckage, just outside the Presidential private quarters, which were unoccupied at the time of
the crash. (Photographs by Agence-France Presse (top), Associated Press (right) (pg. A1); Remnants of the plane that crashed
near the White House's South Lawn being taken away yesterday. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times) (pg. A20) Map/Diagram:
"WHAT HAPPENED: The Crash at the White House" 1. Frank Eugene Corder stole a Cessna 150, a two-seat, single-engine airplane,
from Hartford County Airpark, a private airport in Maryland, and took off after midnight yesterday. 2. He flew south toward
Washington. 3. The plane entered the restricted flight zone at the center of Washington, near the White House. 4. After making
a 180-degree turn west of the Washington Monument, Mr. Corder headed toward the White House. 5. The plane crased at 1:49 A.M.
on the South Lawn of the White House and skidded 50 feet along the ground into the wall two floors below President Clinton's
bedroom; the Clintons wer across the street at Blair House. Mr. Corder died in the crash. (Sources: Associated Press, Federal
Aviation Administration) (pg. A20)
Dr. Mariano, the Military Doctor
She graduated
valedictorian from Mar
Vista High School in Imperial Beach, California in 1973 and cum laude from Revelle
College at the University
of California where she obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology in 1977. She earned her medical degree from the Uniformed
Services University of Medicine, the nation’s military medical school. in Bethesda, Maryland
in 1981. She
was commissioned as lieutenant in the United States Navy upon graduation.
Dr. Mariano
was also certified by the American College
of Surgeons in advanced trauma life support and in advanced cardiac life support.
Following an internship in Internal Medicine
at San Diego
Naval Hospital in 1982, Dr. Mariano was assigned
as the General Officer on board USS Prairie where she served as the
sole physician for a ship's company of 750 men and women. She then developed a mass casualty-training program, which earned
her ship the title of "Benchmark Ship in Mass Casualty Control" for two consecutive years during her tour. While onboard
her ship, Dr. Mariano completed a Western Pacific deployment
Upon receiving board-certification in Internal Medicine, Dr. Mariano was assigned to the Naval Medical
Clinic in Port Hueneme, California from 1986-1990 where she ran the Specialty Clinic and the clinic’s urgent care facility.
In 1990, Dr. Mariano returned to the Naval Hospital in San Diego to become the Division Head of General Internal Medicine.
Completing 24 years of active duty service, Dr. Mariano retired from the Navy in June 2001 with
the rank of Rear Admiral. Dr. Connie Mariano is the first graduate of the Uniformed Services
University of Medicine to reach flag officer status. Additionally, Dr. Mariano is the first Filipino-American to reach the
rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy after being nominated by President Bill Clinton. Her military awards include
the Presidential Service Badge, three awards of the Navy Commendation Medal, the Navy Achievement Medal, three awards of the
Joint Meritorious Unit Commendation and the Battle E Unit Commendation
http://www.txtmania.com/articles/eleanor.php
http://www.apamsa.org/2006conference/index_files/Page488.htm
More on U.S.S. Prairie
Source: http://www.ussprairie.com/
In December 1979, the first of PRAIRIE's
new complement of female crewmembers arrived--four officers. Enlisted women began reporting aboard in 1982, and each
year, more and more females were permanently assigned to PRAIRIE until they numbered in the hundreds, performing virtually
every duty the ship had to offer.
After Prairie's sister ship USS
DIXIE (AD 14) was decommissioned in June of 1982, Prairie earned the right to fly the "Don't Tread on Me" Navy jack flag as
the oldest ship in continuous active service. In September of the following year, PRAIRIE again changed homeports to
Long Beach and immediately began tending ships at the Naval
Station.
In November 1983, PRAIRIE got underway
for her 23rd WestPac and spent 57-days anchored in the North Arabian Sea. Two years
later, she claimed her third Battle "E," and in the summer
of 1986, the Engineering Department was awarded the Departmental Red "E" for the sixth consecutive time. This enabled
PRAIRIE to meet the demands of her 25th WestPac later that year.
On March 26th,
1993, USS PRAIRIE was decommissioned in Long Beach, CA.
A short time later, she was towed to Singapore
and sold for scrap.
SAN DIEGO
2009
REUNION!
Our
reunion for 2009 will be held at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center in San
Diego, CA from 27-30 September 2009.
Dr. Mariano, the Mayo Clinic Physician
In 2001, Dr. Mariano retired from the Navy and left the White House to join the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona. Source Wikipedia
Dr. Mariano, the Private Practioner & Business
Owner
Source: Wikipedia
Copied the following information & the photos from:
|
Center for Executive Medicine
World Class Care Comes to North Scottsdale.
As
our chief executive, the President of the United States has immediate access to top medical care 7 days a week, 24 hours a
day. Now, this same standard of care is offered in North Scottsdale by the former Director of the White House Medical Unit
and Physician to the President, Dr. Eleanor "Connie" Mariano.
Serving Your Needs
You've
achieved success in life with hard work and smart decisions. You've earned health care as efficient as it is effective, accommodating
your schedule, serving your needs.
Imagine. No annoying delays. No unnecessary gatekeepers. No
hassles. Instead, you have direct access to Dr. Mariano and the finest care available, from a doctor who knows you and understands
your individual needs. |
Dr. Connie Mariano
Dr. Mariano's unique qualifications are ideally suited to a concierge
medical practice that provides a premium-level of care and access exclusively to patients enrolled as members.
For
the last four years, Dr. Mariano has practiced in the Executive Health program at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale. The previous nine
years she served as the White House Physician, an unparalleled experience in VIP care.
In her office, 100 feet from
the Oval Office, Presidents and First Ladies relied on Dr. Mariano's advice and treatment. The personal health and well being
of the leader of the free world rested in Dr. Mariano's hands, 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world.
Dr. Mariano Mariano was
born at the former Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Pampanga
in 1955. the eldest
daughter of Angel, a career Navy enlisted serviceman and Lu Mariano, a dentist. Her family moved to Hawaii when she was two years old and typical for a military family, moved frequently during
her father’s Navy career. Dr. Mariano has lived in Hawaii, California,
Taiwan and Washington,
DC. Her
father served in the US Navy as a steward, one of the few military jobs available to Filipinos at that time. He retired as
a master chef after serving 29 years. Dr. Mariano's four Filipino godfathers were also Navy master chefs. Dr. Mariano grew
up in Imperial Beach near the Mexican border.
Sources:
http://www.txtmania.com/articles/eleanor.php http://www.apamsa.org/2006conference/index_files/Page488.htm
|
Dr. Connie Mariano and Mona Lisa Yuchengco, founder of Filipinas Magazine, with Attorney Sarmiento
at the 10th Annual Filipinas Magazine Achievement Awards Night - June 2007 |
Dog Will Be Neutered,
The Clintons Decide
Published: Wednesday, March 11, 1998
The prospects for a sex life for President
Clinton's dog Buddy are about to be curbed because President Clinton plans to have him neutered.
Dr. E. Connie Mariano, the White House physician, broke the news about the six-month old chocolate
labrador's fate in a letter to the actress Doris Day, who heads an animal welfare group that had urged Mr. Clinton to set
an example to pet owners.
''The President has asked me to inform
you that, with the advice of their veterinarian, the first family plan to have Buddy neutered,'' Dr. Mariano said in Monday's
letter, released by the group. No date has been set for the operation.
http://www.nytimes.com/ 1996/08/22/us/dole-camp-seeks-disclosure-of-clinton-s-medical-records.html
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21— The Bob Dole campaign said today that President Clinton should make all of his medical records
public, as Mr. Dole has, and not just summaries of his annual physical examinations.
Mr. Clinton turned 50 this week and generally gives the outward appearance of being, in the words of his White House spokesman,
Michael D. McCurry, ''a healthy 50-year-old white male'' with a healthy appetite and a few extra pounds to show for it.
But Mr. Clinton has not agreed to an interview about his health, as has Mr. Dole, who is 73 and partly disabled from his
World War II wounds.
Today, the Dole camp made an issue of Mr. Clinton's apparent reluctance to fully disclose the details of his records. ''Why
won't the President of the United States provide the American people with a full accounting of his medical history and records?''
Mr. Dole's spokesman, Nelson Warfield, asked in a written statement. ''After all, as Bill Clinton's White House has proven
time and again, partial disclosure is no disclosure at all.''
The health of Presidents has long been an issue, but gained currency after President Dwight D. Eisenhower's heart attack
more than 40 years ago. Since then, the public has been privy to details -- sometimes more than many people wanted to know
-- about problems like Lyndon B. Johnson's gall-bladder surgery and Ronald Reagan's gunshot wounds and his cancer.
But Mr. Clinton's relative reticence on the subject, along with the challenge raised by the Dole campaign, prompted questions
and requests for the President's medical files at today's White House briefing.
Mr. McCurry responded by disclosing some of Mr. Clinton's most recent results, including his cholesterol count, his pulse
rate, his blood pressure and his hemoglobin, and white blood cell and platelet count, all of which were normal.
Mr. McCurry was then asked by The New York Times why Mr. Clinton would not submit to an interview with its medical reporter,
Dr. Lawrence K. Altman, as Presidents Bush and Reagan did, and as Mr. Dole has done.
Mr. McCurry responded that he had offered Dr. Altman an interview with Dr. Connie Mariano,
the White House physician, and ''he didn't take us up on the offer.''
Andrew Rosenthal, the paper's Washington editor, said that in fact Dr. Altman did interview Dr.
Mariano for about an hour in May, but chose not to publish an article because of the request pending since 1992
to see the President. He said the paper considered its reporting on Mr. Clinton's health incomplete.
Later in the briefing, Mr. McCurry said he saw ''no reason'' not to disclose more information, ''given the President's
overall health.''
Source: http://uslaw4u.com/communityservicepage.htm
 |
Leadership Lessons From the White House
Dr. Eleanor "Connie" Mariano, First Female Commander
of the White House Medical Unit, First and Only Filipino-American to Achieve the Rank of Rear Admiral, Author of White
House Physician
|
|
A dynamic and confident leader, Connie Mariano will share her journey as a woman, mother, naval officer and head of the
White House Medical Unit and the invaluable leadership lessons she learned that helped her make the leap from constant underdog
to top dog. Confidence is a survival tactic Connie learned early on. She was born in a U.S. military base in the Philippines
and relocated every few years when her father, a career Navy enlisted serviceman, was restationed. "I was constantly trying
to readjust and prove myself." The hardest part for Connie was being judged before she even opened her mouth. "Some people
assume I'm going to be meek and deferential because I'm a petite Asian-American woman," but she's proved them wrong time and
again.
Connie served as an Officer in the U.S. Navy for 24 years and was the first and only Filipino-American in history to achieve
the rank of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. In 1992, she was nominated by the Navy and selected by the White House as the first
military woman in American history to serve as White House Physician. Two years later, she was named the first female Commander
of the White House Medical Unit. By attending to three American presidents over a nine-year period, Dr. Mariano is by far
the longest-serving White House physician in American history.
After her retirement from the Navy, Dr. Mariano became a consultant in the Executive Health Program at the Mayo Clinic
and subsequently founded the Center for Executive Medicine, a medical concierge practice which provides presidential-quality
care to the Center's patients. An expert in presidential health care, including the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, Dr.
Mariano is a frequent guest speaker on CNN and in print media on the topics of presidential disability, including the 25th
Amendment to the Constitution, optimizing quality of care and leadership. She is the author of White House Physician,
which will be published in early 2010 by St. Martin's Press | |
Additional Info about Dr. Mariano:
http://www.nailba.org/content/perspectives/downloads/2003fall/NMFall03Mariano.pdf
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