Biden says Jill is ‘doing great’ after surgery for cancerous lesions

President Joe Biden said Thursday that his wife Jill is doing “very well” after her outpatient surgery to remove lesions on her face and chest.

The president, who spent about eight hours at Walter Reed National Military Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, on Wednesday with the first lady, said he was under anesthesia for about five hours for his Mohs surgery.

Jill Biden returned to the White House Wednesday night to recuperate after having three lesions removed, with at least two of them determined to be cancerous.

The president said that she is “very well.” She was under a long time, for five hours. What they were doing was removing the moles, removing what they thought might be cancerous and testing it and seeing what it was.

President Joe Biden said first lady Jill Biden is doing “very well” after her outpatient surgery to remove lesions on her face and chest; top right is the first lady on Wednesday en route from the White House to Walter Reed National Military Hospital.

She is up. We had breakfast this morning and she is recovering,’ said the president.

White House Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a memo Wednesday that the first lady is experiencing facial swelling and bruising after going to the hospital for a lesion above her right eye, which was confirmed to be a cell carcinoma. basal.

The president said she feels some pain.

‘She’s going to be sore for a while from the work they did on her eyes and, that’s where one of these was. But she has a 0% to 1% chance that she will come back any type of cancer, so she thank God she is doing very well,” she said.

During the surgery, doctors also removed a lesion from Jill Biden’s left eyelid and sent it for microscopic examination to determine if it was cancerous.

They also found a lesion on her chest, which appeared to be basal cell carcinoma, and doctors removed it. They later confirmed that it was that type of skin cancer.

“All of the cancerous tissue was successfully removed,” O’Connor said.

Jill Biden thanked the hospital staff for their care.

Her spokeswoman, Vanessa Valdivia, said in a statement Wednesday night that the first lady was “well and in good spirits.” She sends her love and gratitude to all the doctors and nurses at Walter Reed for her expertise, care and kindness, and thanks everyone who has sent her well wishes and prayers.”

Jill Biden, who teaches English at a Northern Virginia community college, may have some recovery time since the new semester of classes has not yet begun.

First lady Jill Biden leaves the White House ahead of outpatient surgery to remove a small lesion over her right eye, known as Mohs surgery.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor said one of the lesions was determined to be basal cell carcinoma, another was removed because it appeared to be the same type of skin cancer, while a third was removed and sent to a lab.

President Joe Biden returns to the White House alone after spending the day at Walter Reed with his wife

Mohs surgery is an outpatient procedure in which thin layers of skin are cut and checked for cancer.

Jill Biden’s office announced last week that she would undergo the procedure and delivered a letter from O’Connor.

In his letter Wednesday, the doctor to the president noted that “lesions from basal cell carcinoma do not tend to spread or ‘metastasize’ as some more serious skin cancers, such as melanoma or basal cell carcinoma, are known to do. scaly”.

“However, they have the potential to increase in size, resulting in a more significant problem, as well as greater challenges for surgical removal,” he wrote.

The first lady steps off Marine One at the National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Jill Biden, 71, is the oldest first lady in modern American history.

President Biden has accompanied her in two other medical procedures.

Prior to Wednesday’s procedure, Dr. Biden underwent a “common medical procedure” at an outpatient center near the George Washington University campus in April 2021, with no additional details released by the White House.

And, in July 2021, he traveled to Walter Reed to have debris removed from his foot after he stepped on an unnamed object while walking on a beach in Hawaii during a pit stop he made in the state while returning from the Olympics. from Tokyo.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked at her briefing Wednesday if the president was undergoing any part of his physical while waiting for the first lady at Walter Reed.

He indicated that this was not the case.

‘This is about your wife today. He wanted to be there and support her,” Jean-Pierre said. “They have been married for 45 years and he wanted to be there with Dr. Biden during this time.”

It is not the Biden family’s first brush with cancer.

Beau Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma in 2013. He died in 2015.