Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), the only practicing physician in Congress, said during a Thursday interview that President Trump’s recent diagnosis will not “deter him from his job.”
“As far as the president’s health, making sure – look, he is robust. This is not going to defer him, or, deter him, from his job,” Murphy said during his Thursday appearance on NewsNation’s show “The Hill.”
The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Trump underwent medical testing because of “mild swelling” in his legs and bruising on his hand. The test revealed that the president has chronic venous insufficiency.
The condition occurs when the person’s leg veins have a hard time pumping blood back to the heart, leading the blood to pool, the Cleveland Clinic said. There was no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease, according to Leavitt.
“This is not an uncommon thing. As people get older, the veins have little valves in them, and that’s what allows blood to stay in a place, and then muscles contract and actually pushes blood from the legs back up into the heart,” Murphy told host Blake Burman. “As time goes by, these valves become a little bit more incompetent. They’re not working quite as well, so that leads to some stasis, some blood not coming back up as well.”
White House physician Sean Barbabella said in a Thursday memo that Trump’s medical team did an echocardiogram, which showed “normal cardiac structure and function.”
“No signs of heart failure, renal impairment, or systemic illness were identified,” Barbabella said.
The White House physician also said bruising on Trump’s hand was “consistent with minor soft tissue damage from frequent handshaking” and due to him often taking aspirin.
“[Trump] had an echocardiogram to look to make sure he didn’t have what they call right heart failure, where the right heart is not taking in the blood like it should. That didn’t seem to be a problem,” Murphy said. “So this is a common thing, you know, and apparently he takes aspirin, so that’s the bruising on the hand, very common stuff.”
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