Biden Discusses Aneurysms - From: CBS News

From: CBS NEWS

August 30, 2008, 9:06 PM
Biden Discusses Aneurysms
Posted by Maria Gavrilovic

From CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic:

(DUBLIN, Ohio) Joe Biden, who attended the memorial service for Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones today, talked about his own bout with aneurysms that nearly killed him 20 years ago. "When mine burst fortunately as described to me by the neurosurgeon it ricocheted off my skull instead of into my brain,” Biden explained, “If it had been the other way around I'd be a….”

Biden seemed to be particularly affected by Tubbs Jones’ death, because it was a stark reminder of what could have happened to him. “I know it sounds corny, it almost sounds maudlin, but you know here she was one day walking around just like I was the next day,” he said adding, “I woke up four hours later on the floor with a hemorrhage. In her case the same thing happened only she never made it back."

Explaining the severity of aneurysms, Biden said that neurosurgeons can “either fix or they don’t.” “If they fix it it's fixed. If they don't they don't there's not much in between it's not like cancer or heart disease or something, but it was kinda poignant."

Obama attended the memorial service in Cleveland with Biden and the Clintons. “What struck me most about Stephanie was how, even after a decade in Congress, she was so utterly unaffected by the ways of Washington. She was still a home girl,” Obama said at the service.

Both Obama and Biden spent time with Tubbs Jones nearly a month ago.