PREZ: MELANIA KIDNEY SURGERY ‘SUCCESSFUL’
WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump underwent a “successful” procedure yesterday to treat a benign kidney condition and was expected to remain hospitalized for the rest of the week, her staff said.
The first lady, 48, had the embolization procedure yesterday morning. President Trump took a helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to visit her and tweeted that his wife was in “good spirits.”The president spoke with Melania Trump before the procedure and with her doctor afterward, the first lady’s office said.
The president tweeted shortly before arriving at Walter Reed outside Washington, saying it was a “successful procedure,” describing his wife as being “in good spirits” and offering his thanks “to all of the well-wishers!”
The White House did not offer any additional details on Melania Trump’s condition. In opening remarks in the Senate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sent well wishes for “a speedy recovery to the first lady.”
She was last seen in public on Wednesday at a White House event where she joined the president to honor military mothers and spouses for Mother’s Day.
Two urologists who have no personal knowledge of Melania Trump’s condition said the most likely explanation for the procedure is a kind of noncancerous kidney tumor called an angiomyolipoma.
They’re not common, but tend to occur in middle-aged women, and if they become large enough, they can cause problematic bleeding, said Dr. Keith Kowalczyk of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
“The treatment of choice” is to cut off the blood supply so the growth shrinks, added Dr. Lambros Stamatakis of MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Doctors do that with an embolization, meaning a catheter is snaked into the blood vessels of the kidney to find the right one and block it.
Most of the time, these benign tumors are found when people undergo medical scans for another reason, but sometimes people have pain or other symptoms, Kowalczyk said. Many times, embolization patients go home the same day or the next.
The president had no public appearances scheduled for yesterday and declined to answer shouted questions from reporters about how his wife was feeling as he departed the White House for Walter Reed.
Melania Trump, who has been gradually raising her profile as first lady, recently hosted her first state dinner and launched a public awareness campaign to help children.