BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Medical people are saying that cerebral venous thrombosis, the diagnosis of Hillary Rodham Clinton, could have been "life-threatening," but the Secretary of State is expected to make a full recovery.

The rare blood clot was discovered in the vein behind Clinton’s right ear.

"She is lucky being Hillary Clinton and had a follow-up MRI - lucky that her team thought to do it," said Dr. Brian D. Greenwald of JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Center for Head Injuries, according to ABC News.  Greenwald said the backup of blood flow could have given Clinton a stroke or hemorrhage.

Clinton, 65, went to New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday for a follow-up exam on her recent concussion, according to an Associated Press report on Comcast. She had been on a trip to Europe, then became ill with a stomach virus in early December and became severely dehydrated. 

During her recovery Clinton fainted, fell and suffered a concussion.

George Washington University Hospital doctors said that the clot is being treated with anti-coagulants. Doctors said Clinton was “in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family and her staff,” according to The Los Angeles Times.

Clinton’s name has come up on the early list of candidates for possible Democratic presidential candidates for 2016. Clinton was voted the most admired woman in the world for the 11th straight year in a just released Gallup poll of Americans.

Neurosurgeon David Langer from North Shore University Hospital in New York said the rare type of clot may have come as a result of Clinton’s dehydration, according to Businessweek.

Gregory Piazza, a vascular medicine specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said he thinks a fall that could cause a concussion may have caused the clot, or a clot could have been the reason for Clinton’s fall. “Either could be a possibility,” he said, according to The Washington Post.