During an interview with FOX Business Channel on Monday, Rutgers University Professor of Medicine Bob Lahita said he agreed with “Dr. Drew” Pinsky on “not every point, but on several points” about Hillary Clinton’s health.
“I do agree with Dr. Drew that this is a very unusual story with Hillary,” he told Risk & Reward hostess Deirdra Bolton.
Lahita noted that Clinton has had two blood clots, and a stroke in 2012 that resulted in a transverse venous sinus thrombosis, which like Pinsky, he said is a “very, very rare condition.” He also noted she had Post-Concussive Syndrome, which required her to wear special glasses to deal with double vision.
“The very fact that she’s having these clots, and she’s had a couple bouts of thrombosis, is disconcerting to me, to say the least,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a conspiracy. You go back to the history of our presidents, and we’ve had many presidents up until Lyndon Johnson who concealed their health during their campaigns, and it had dire effects for our country.”
Lahita said he thought both Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump should be “very forthcoming” about their health. He also recommended the presidential and vice presidential candidates undergo a full health review by “an impartial panel of physicians” that would review the test results and make an unbiased medical determination.
Bolton noted that Trump had released a letter from his personal physician earlier in the campaign, and that Clinton did the same more recently. But she also had Dr. Ben Carson on her program, and he said the letter was from 18 months prior, and that there should have been a more recent statement from her physician.
The physician who wrote that letter, who is reportedly Clinton’s personal physician, has since made a public statement that she believes the former secretary of state remains in “excellent health.” Lahita agreed that a new statement is helpful, but noted those letters don’t provide the details the American public may deserve.
“The letter is kind of a summary, it doesn’t go into much detail,” he said. “She’s also hypothyroid, and there are conditions where blood clotting and hypothyroidism go together, and that would be quite interesting.”
Alluding to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, otherwise referred to as HIPAA, Bolton asked Lahita what the ethics would be in such a disclosure of private health information. He said the ethics are actually “pretty clear.”
“We cannot—the doctor cannot divulge her results without her permission. The same is true with Donald Trump,” he said. “Nobody can divulge the patient’s medical condition without the patient’s permission. However, we owe it to the country—we owe it to the voters—not only for the presidential candidates, but also for the vice presidential candidates. Particularly in this election.”
Lahita is Chairman of Medicine and Vice President of the Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, as well as an adjunct Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a master of the American College of Rheumatology, and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
He’s also the author of 16 books and more than 150 scientific publications. And, as of Monday, he has joined a growing list of American physicians who have said the public needs to know more about Clinton’s health condition.
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