Snyder's blood clot 'scarier' than they let on
Tim Skubick's annual interview with Governor Rick Synder and First Lady Sue Snyder. 12/16/15. photo: Stacy Hoxsey/WKAR-MSU
(WJBK) - One thing you learn in this business is that it may take some time, but eventually the true story behind a news event comes out.
Think Bill Clinton's dalliances with a young woman; former President Richard Nixon eating his own words, "I am not a crook"; and now comes the revealing account of what really happened after Gov. Rick Snyder damaged his Achilles heel last winter while on vacation with the First Lady Sue Snyder.
Just after she successfully coordinated the second Inguration celebration on New Year's day, the First Couple took a timeout in warmer climes. The governor, who had never been a jogger, was eager to prepare for a marathon event with his two daughters. Turns out, no good deed goes unpunished.
Being the hard driven kinda of guy that he is, he applied that attitude to his new assignment and dove into a regiment of running hard for three days in a row.
The First Lady, who is not only the CEO of the household but the First Caregiver as well recalls, "I said I think we just need to reel it in a little bit."
In what happens to many husbands in the course of being married, he ignored the advice.
"I tend to be focused and want to over achieve," he states in what amounts to an understatement.
She continues the narrative on the Public TV Broadcast "An Evening with the Governor" as the audience is lead to a revelation that the media was never told during the whole ordeal.
She is sitting by the pool soon after her "reel it in" advice only to find him "hobbling" in with this announcement, "I think I ripped something."
And she quickly responds, "I told you."
Sitting next to her on the studio coach, he confirms she did and she adds, "I did" just to make sure the point is not missed.
Based on an analysis from a doctor friend of the family via Skipe, everyone concludes "this is not good."
It's not.
The damaged Achilles heel results in the governor having to use a scooter to navigate his busy schedule including delivering a 45 minute State of the State report to the citizens in early January right after the vacation gig.
The heeling process drags along and then it gets "scary," as Ms. Snyder continues the story.
He calls her one morning at work to report his leg has ballooned. "It looked like an elephant's leg," she recalls and shortly thereafter he's in the ER and is quickly hospitalized for a potentially life-threatening blood clot.
Of course this is statewide news and the governor's media operation kicks into overdrive with updates on the situation, but turns out the full gravity was never revealed.
One insider confided after the fact, "this was a lot more serious than was reported."
And she confirms it.
"Were you concerned about the outcome at any point?" she was asked.
"Oh, absolutely," she quickly responds.
And then this.
"Did you think you might lose him?"
"There was a point there when it crossed my mind, yeah."
"Because?"
"Because it was so serious and the clot went all the way up," through his body.
Of course, her fears were never realized as the doctors did a grand job of dissolving the clot and then as the governor recounts, "they did a roto-rooter job on me" and the danger passed.
Now the two laugh about it as he is asked the final question concerning any lessons learned?
"I should always listen to my wife. It didn't take me all those years of school to figure that one out."
She did not say it out loud, but betya she was thinking, "He's got that right."
EDITOR'S NOTE: The full evening with the governor exchange can be found here.