Former President Donald Trump’s medical condition when he was hospitalized in October for COVID-19 was worse than publicly disclosed, The New York Times claimed, citing unidentified sources.
Four anonymous sources, the Times said, claimed Trump had ''extremely depressed'' blood oxygen levels, and two of them claimed that medical officials believed the president would need to be placed on a ventilator.
Trump was admitted to Walter Reed Military Medical Center on Oct. 2 with what was reported at the time as a fever and trouble breathing. The ''types of treatment he received indicated his condition was serious,'' the Times wrote.
The publication cited the sources as saying Trump’s blood oxygen level ''dipp(ed) into the 80s.'' A blood oxygen level in the low 90-percent range is considered serious.
The Times characterized the information as underscoring ''the limited and sometimes misleading nature'' of what was disclosed to reporters.
Trump’s physician said at the time that X-rays and CT scans found ''expected findings, but nothing of any major clinical concern.'' Sean Conley said Trump’s blood oxygen content dropped to 93%, but never into the ''low 80s.''
Doctors prescribed the steroid dexamethasone and a five-day course of the antiviral drug remdesivir. Conley reported that Trump was recovering quickly, and said on Oct. 4 that he gave an upbeat prognosis of Trump’s condition.
''I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, his course of illness has had,'' he said. ''I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction, and in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true.''
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