Clinton released from hospital

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. -- Former President Bill Clinton left the hospital and returned home Friday, four days after undergoing heart bypass surgery, his office said.

Clinton arrived early Friday evening at his home in the New York suburb of Chappaqua, according to his spokesman, Jim Kennedy.

"The president is in good spirits and has taken short walks in the hospital hallway and in his home today," Kennedy said in a prepared statement.

The 58-year-old Democrat was taken off his respirator and placed in an intensive care unit on Monday. On Wednesday, he was moved back to his hospital room, where he walked with assistance, sat in his bed and sat up in his chair.

Clinton had planned to campaign for John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president, but the recovery from surgery will take him off the stump for now, with just eight weeks left until the election.

It was not immediately clear how soon he could return to the campaign trail.

In recent days, Clinton has been inundated with thousands of well-wishes and flowers, his foundation has said.

"We appreciate more than words can say all the good wishes and messages of concern that we received during this difficult time in our lives," Clinton, his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea said Friday in a statement relayed through the family's spokesman.

"We feel blessed to have such support, and it will continue to sustain us throughout the months of recuperation that remain ahead," they said.

The family also thanked doctors and nurses at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, where the former president underwent surgery Monday.

Neighbors welcomed Clinton back to his home about 40 miles north of Manhattan. "I'm glad he came through," said Osman Osmani, who lives on the same quiet, tree-lined cul de sac as the Clintons. "We give him our best. Good to have him back."

Clinton went to the hospital late last week after complaining of prolonged chest pain and shortness of breath, but doctors revealed Monday that he'd had these symptoms for several months. They said he had blamed them on lapses in his exercise routine and acid reflux.

Doctors performed the four-hour quadruple bypass operation and found that Clinton's heart disease was extensive, with blockages in some arteries well over 90 percent.

In bypass surgery, doctors remove one or more blood vessels from elsewhere in the body -- in Clinton's case, two arteries from the chest and a vein from the leg -- and attach them to arteries serving the heart, detouring around blockages.