Melania Trump returned to the
White House on Saturday from a week-long hospitalization after treatment for a kidney condition, a lengthy stay that raised questions about whether the first lady’s condition may have been more complicated than initially revealed.
Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, has declined to release additional details, citing Trump’s right to privacy.
Donald Trump heralded his wife’s arrival home with a tweet in which her name was spelled incorrectly.
“Great to have our incredible First Lady back home in the White House,” Trump wrote. “Melanie is feeling and doing really well. Thank you for all of your prayers and best wishes!”
The tweet was quickly superseded with another that spelled the first lady’s name correctly.
In a statement on Saturday morning, Grisham said: “The first lady returned home to the White House this morning. She is resting comfortably and remains in high spirits. Our office has received thousands of calls and emails wishing Mrs Trump well, and we thank everyone who has taken the time to reach out.”
The first lady had been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington since Monday, when she underwent an embolization procedure to treat an unspecified kidney condition the White House described as benign. Word of the hospitalization came as a surprise because there was no indication in numerous public appearances in recent weeks that Trump had been ailing.
First ladies are under no obligation to make their medical histories public. Grisham said on Monday that the procedure was “successful”, there were no complications and that Trump would probably remain hospitalized for “the duration of the week”.
The president tweeted on Tuesday that his wife would be released in “2 or 3” days, but Thursday and Friday passed without word from the White House. Donald Trump visited during the first three days of her hospitalization but he did not make the trip on Thursday or Friday, leading some to wonder if the first lady had been released.
The first lady, 48, said on Wednesday on Twitter she was “feeling great” and looking forward to going home, but gave no indication of when. On Friday, she tweeted about the school shooting at a Houston-area high school but did not update her followers on her medical situation.
Urologists with no personal knowledge of Trump’s condition said the most likely explanation is a kind of noncancerous kidney tumor called an angiomyolipoma. They are not common but tend to occur in middle-aged women and can cause problematic bleeding if they become large enough, said Dr Keith Kowalczyk of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
Doctors often treat the condition by cutting off the blood supply so the growth shrinks, added Dr Lambros Stamatakis of MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Doctors do that with an embolization, meaning a catheter is snaked into the blood vessels of the kidney to find the right one and block it.
Most of the time, these tumors are found when people undergo medical scans for another reason but sometimes people have pain or other symptoms, Kowalczyk said. Embolization patients often go home the same day or the next.
Grisham characterized speculation about the first lady as “uninformed”. “Mrs Trump has a medical team that is comfortable with her care, which is all that matters,” she said. “Her recovery and privacy are paramount and I will have no further comment beyond this.”