Bernie Sanders had a heart attack this week, his presidential campaign has confirmed after days of limited information about the condition that hospitalised him.
The Vermont senator, 78, felt chest pains on Tuesday night and was taken to a hospital in Las Vegas, disrupting his campaign to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Sanders campaign had announced that doctors inserted two stents in a blocked artery on Wednesday, but remained largely quiet on other details of the incident.
On Friday they released a statement quoting two physicians saying that Mr Sanders had suffered a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart attack.
Mr Sanders appeared alongside his wife in a short video posted on Twitter on Friday thanking supporters for their “love and warm wishes”.
“I just got out of the hospital a few hours ago and I’m feeling so much better,” Mr Sanders said, adding with a smile: "See you soon on the campaign trail.”
The incident will force focus back on the age of Mr Sanders – he would be the oldest president ever elected if he wins the 2020 election – as well as that of other leading candidates.
Hello everybody! We’re in Las Vegas. I’m feeling so much better.
Thank you for all of the love and warm wishes that you sent me.
See you soon on the campaign trail. pic.twitter.com/nk3wWIAuE7
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 5, 2019
Joe Biden, the former US vice president, is 76 and Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator, is 70. Donald Trump is 73.
Mr Biden’s lead in the polls has narrowed markedly since an impeachment inquiry was announced over Mr Trump’s attempt to get the Ukrainian president to investigate the Bidens.
Mr Biden’s son Hunter once worked for a Ukrainian gas company. Mr Biden had called for a prosecutor who at one point was investigating that company. Both have always denied wrongdoing.
Mr Biden enjoyed a 10-point lead over Ms Warren the day the impeachment inquiry was announced, according to a rolling average of polls on the political website Real Clear Politics. That is now down to around two points.
Mr Biden has launched an aggressive counter-attack strategy this week to tackle Mr Trump’s repeated accusations about his actions in Ukraine, many made without evidence.
The Biden campaign is pushing that line that Mr Trump is attempting to stop “the one Democrat he doesn’t want to face”.
On Friday, Mr Biden called Mr Trump “the definition of corruption”, echoing the US president’s attacks on him, and said he would not “stand” for the president’s behaviour.
He added that Mr Trump’s accusations were “all about making sure that he in fact allows somebody else to pick his opponent for him”.
Should Mr Sanders pull out of the race Ms Warren would likely be best placed to win over his supporters, given her left-wing policy platform is closest to his.