Dr. Sean Conley says the president received a dose of the steroid dexamethasone and could be discharged on October 5.
President Donald Trump’s blood oxygen level plummeted twice in recent days, his doctors revealed Oct. 4, as they continued to evade basic questions about his health during treatment for COVID-19. Still, they said he “continued to improve” and suggested he could be discharged on October 5.
Speaking on the steps of the military hospital where Trump spent a third day, his doctors again dodged questions, including the timing of his second oxygen immersion, which they did not mention in multiple statements the day before, or whether lung scans showed any damage.
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It was the second consecutive day of obfuscation of a White House already suffering a credibility crisis. And he raised serious questions about whether the doctors treating the president can be trusted to share accurate and timely information with the American public.
Pressed by conflicting information that he and the White House released on October 3, the Commander of the Navy. Dr. Sean Conley acknowledged that he had tried to present an optimistic description of the president’s condition.
“I was trying to reflect the optimistic attitude of the team, that of the president, who has had his course of illness. He did not want to give any information that could divert the course of the illness in another direction,” said Dr. Conley. “And in doing so, it seemed like we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true. The fact is, he’s doing very well.”
The briefing in front of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center lasted only 10 minutes.
Before leaving, Dr. Conley said the president had a “high fever” and a blood oxygen level below 94% on October 2 and during “another episode” on October 3. He was evasive about the timing (“It was during the course of the day, yes, yesterday morning,” he said) and when asked if Trump’s level had dropped below 90% (“We don’t have any recording here about it “). But it revealed that Mr. Trump was given a dose of the steroid dexamethasone in response.
Trump’s blood oxygen level is currently 98%, Trump’s medical team said.
Blood oxygen saturation is a key health marker for COVID-19 patients. A normal reading is between 95 and 100. A drop below 90 is concerning.
Doctors also declined to say what they found in the president’s lung scans.
“There are some expected findings, but nothing of great clinical concern,” Dr. Conley said. He declined to outline those “expected findings.” The virus can cause pneumonia and other damage that may be visible on scans before the patient is very ill.
Trump offered his own assessment of his condition the night before in video from his hospital suite, saying he was beginning to feel better and hoped “to be back soon.” And he returned to social media early in the morning of October 4, sharing a video of supporters with flags, most without masks, gathered in front of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The shifting – and at times contradictory – accounts created a credibility crisis for the White House at a crucial time, with the president’s health and the nation’s leadership at stake. Furthermore, the president’s health represents a national security concern of the utmost importance not only to the functions of the US government, but also to countries around the world, friends or not.
Trump’s Democratic challenger Joe Biden took his strike ads off the air during Trump’s hospitalization, and on Oct. 4 sent high-level aides to deliver a largely friendly message.
“We sincerely hope that the president recovers very quickly and we can see him back in the election campaign very soon,” Biden’s adviser Symone Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
She added: “This is a stark reminder that the virus is real.”
On October 3, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters outside the hospital, “We are not yet on a clear path to a full recovery.” In an overnight update on Oct. 4, Trump’s chief physician expressed cautious optimism, but added that the president was “not out of the woods yet.”
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