Update at 7:45 a.m. ET: Former president Bill Clinton has been released from a New York hospital, where he underwent heart surgery yesterday to have two stents placed in an artery, a close friend says.

The Associated Press writes that:

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe said on CBS' The Early Show that Clinton had left New York Presbyterian Hospital. Clinton lives in Chappaqua, a Westchester County hamlet about 35 miles north of New York City.

CBSNews.com adds that:

Asked if (Clinton) should slow down, McAuliffe, who co-chaired Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, said, "He's been doing this for 63 years, you're not going to change him at this point."

And, CBS has posted video of the interview with McAuliffe:


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Our original post — "Bill Clinton Moving Around, Likely To Be Out Of Hospital Today":

Former president Bill Clinton "is already moving around and in good spirits after yesterday's heart procedure, in which he had a blocked artery fixed," NPR's Robert Smith reports.

It's likely the 63-year-old Clinton will be released later today, Robert adds. Doctors placed two stents into one of his arteries.

Cardiologist Allan Schwartz, NPR.org reports, said the former president had been feeling repeated discomfort in his chest, and tests showed that one of the bypasses from his 2004 quadruple bypass surgery was completely blocked. There was no sign Clinton had suffered a heart attack, and the new blockage was not a result of his diet, Schwartz said. The doctor said Clinton could return to work Monday.

"The procedure went very smoothly," Schwartz said, describing Clinton's prognosis as excellent. The former president is at New York Presbyterian Hospital's campus at Columbia University.

The New York Times notes that:

The episode came days after Mr. Clinton returned from Haiti, where he serves as the United Nations special envoy and is helping coordinate recovery from last month's earthquake. Mr. Clinton was talking about Haiti on a cellphone with his wife's chief of staff, Cheryl D. Mills, even as he was being wheeled into the operating room, and only reluctantly gave up the phone, said an associate, who like others insisted on anonymity to describe the day's events.

According to The Washington Post:

Clinton's associates said he has been working at a grueling pace since the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, but they said his demanding schedule did not contribute to his heart problems. Clinton, the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, is overseeing the U.S. response with former president George W. Bush. Clinton has twice shuttled between his New York home and Port-au-Prince in recent weeks.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton went to New York last evening to be with her husband. She plans to depart, as scheduled, for a trip to the Middle East on Saturday.

On Morning Edition, NPR's Joanne Silberner reported about how common this type of procedure is. She spoke with ME co-host Renee Montagne: