Holbrooke in critical condition after heart surgery
Special Representative Richard Holbrooke is in critical condition Saturday at the George Washington University hospital after undergoing emergency heart surgery Friday evening. "Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was admitted to George Washington University Hospital yesterday. This morning, doctors completed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. He is in critical condition and has been joined by ...
Special Representative Richard Holbrooke is in critical condition Saturday at the George Washington University hospital after undergoing emergency heart surgery Friday evening.
Special Representative Richard Holbrooke is in critical condition Saturday at the George Washington University hospital after undergoing emergency heart surgery Friday evening.
"Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was admitted to George Washington University Hospital yesterday. This morning, doctors completed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. He is in critical condition and has been joined by his family," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a statement.
Holbrooke reportedly collapsed in the 7th floor office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday afternoon, then picked himself up and walked out of the State Department and went to the hospital.
"I just know he was here working this morning, he was taken to the hospital for evaluation… It happened on the seventh floor," Crowley told reporters at Friday’s briefing.
One reporter at the briefing said he saw Holbrooke walk under his own power toward the State Department garage from the cafeteria only moments before the briefing. ABC News reported that Holbrooke "gasped and was clearly undergoing a medical situation when he collapsed."
Clinton has visited Holbrooke in the hospital twice, once on Friday night and once on Saturday. He was also surrounded by family. Holbrooke is 69 years old.
Messages of support began streaming in from around the world Saturday. For example, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday said that he was praying for Holbrooke and said, "Ambassador Holbrooke is a great friend of Pakistan. We wish him health and long life."
UPDATE: The White House released this statement Saturday evening from President Obama:
Earlier today, I spoke to Richard Holbrooke’s wife Kati and told her that Michelle and I are praying for Richard. Richard Holbrooke is a towering figure in American foreign policy, a critical member of my Afghanistan and Pakistan team, and a tireless public servant who has won the admiration of the American people and people around the world. I know that Secretary Clinton, Admiral Mullen, Tom Donilon, and other members of our team have been with him at George Washington hospital, and we continue to pray for his recovery, and support his family in this difficult time.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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