US Vice President Kamala Harris briefly held the office of acting President, when President Joe Biden was under anaesthesia for a routine colonoscopy. Harris, the first woman, first Black person and first person of South Asian descent to be Vice President of the US, was for one hour and 25 minutes acting president while Biden was under anesthesia. This made her the first woman to hold Presidential power in the country for the first time in 250 years.
President Biden underwent a battery of blood, physical, gastrointestinal, dental, vision and neurological examinations at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Washington. He received a clean bill of health from his doctor, who said that 79-year-old Biden remains "healthy and vigorous", as per a statement by the White House. Interest in Biden's health has been high ever since he declared his candidacy for the White House in 2019 and remains intense amid speculation about a 2024 re-election bid.
While serving as acting president Harris was working from her office in the West Wing. She later travelled to Ohio once Biden awoke from the procedure. "Biden was keenly aware of the history he was making when he selected Harris to be his running mate," WHite House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, adding that she "made history every day on the job". Psaki added, "Today was certainly another chapter in that history I think that will be noted for women, young girls across the country."
Biden had a brush with death in 1988, requiring surgery to repair two brain aneurysms, weak bulges in arteries, one of them leaking. Biden has never had a recurrence, his doctor said, citing a test in 2014 that examined his arteries.
Dr. Jeffrey Linder, chief of general internal medicine and geriatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, read the White House report and said it contained nothing that's particularly worrisome.