The Nation - News from May 22, 1988

“I am happier than you can possibly believe to be out of the hospital,” Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), plagued with health problems since February, said on his release from Walter Reed Army Medical Center three weeks after surgery to repair an artery near his brain. Biden, who dropped out of the Democratic presidential race last September, first underwent surgery on Feb. 12 to repair an aneurysm and at that time doctors discovered a second, smaller aneurysm in an artery on the right side of the brain. Doctors repaired that during a 4 1/2-hour operation May 3. An aneurysm is a weakened area in an artery. “I think getting out of the race was, quite frankly, a godsend,” he said. If he had stayed in the race, “the percentages are I might not have made it down here.” The 45-year-old senator withdrew from the race after acknowledging he plagiarized a law school exam and exaggerated his achievements.