Reagan Had Earlier Blood Clot on Brain, Doctor Says

The horseback-riding accident that doctors believe produced the blood clot removed from former President Ronald Reagan’s brain last Friday caused a similar but smaller clot last July that disappeared without surgery, Reagan’s doctor has disclosed.

According to a report in Monday’s New York Times, Dr. Thoralf M. Sundt, chief neurosurgeon at the Mayo Clinic and the head of the team caring for Reagan, said that the earlier clot had shown up in medical tests performed in Los Angeles several days after the accident, which occurred July 4 on a Mexican ranch.

Doctors watched the clot, called a subdural hematoma, in periodic brain tests until it disappeared spontaneously, Sundt told the New York Times. Sundt could not be reached Monday, but Reagan spokesman Mark Weinberg confirmed the report.

Because the clot had developed after the July head injury, Reagan’s doctors at Mayo recommended repeating the brain test, called a CAT scan, as part of his routine physical examination last week to make sure the problem had not recurred, Weinberg said.

Reagan, 78, who is recuperating at St. Mary’s Hospital, a Mayo Foundation hospital in Rochester, Minn., has reportedly received hundreds of cards and messages from well-wishers. He is continuing to make an excellent recovery from last week’s surgery and may be able to return to California at the end of this week, according to a statement issued by Weinberg Monday afternoon.