Hillary Clinton to have surgery on broken elbow

[June 19, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expects to have surgery soon to repair a broken elbow she suffered in a fall in the State Department garage.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters that no date for the surgery has been set, but that it likely would be scheduled "in the coming week."

He said Clinton was working from home Thursday and had made no decision about whether to go ahead with planned overseas travel, including a scheduled trip next week to Italy and Greece. Clinton canceled her public appointments, including an appearance with actress Angelina Jolie on Thursday morning at a Washington event marking World Refugee Day.

Crowley said Clinton was walking toward her official vehicle in the State Department's basement garage when she fell about 5 p.m. Wednesday. At the time, she and Richard Holbrooke, the administration's coordinator of policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, were headed to a meeting at the White House.

After the fall, Clinton was examined in her office and then taken to The George Washington University Hospital, just a few blocks away, where her right elbow was X-rayed, Crowley said. He said he did not believe it was a severe fracture, but that he did not know the exact extent of her injury. She returned to her home at about 10 p.m.

"She is deeply appreciative of the professional and kind medical team at the hospital, and thanks the many well-wishers that have already been calling her from around the country and the world, including President Obama, who was one of the first to call her late last night," Crowley said.

[Associated Press]

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