Aspen – Saying he was fine, former Secretary of State Colin Powell returned to a seminar today a few hours after he was briefly hospitalized following a dinner with former President Clinton and others in this mountain resort.
Powell, 69, arrived on time for a panel discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival and showed no signs that he had been sick the night before.
“I’m fine. I look healthy, don’t I?” he told the Aspen Daily News after the hour-long session. “I started hyperventilating a little and was feeling a little altitude sickness, I think. I probably would have been OK but they said, ‘Oh god, let’s take a look at him.’ They took me to the hospital, gave me a quick examination and let me go.” Powell was released from Aspen Valley Hospital at 1:45 a.m., police Sgt. Bill Linn said.
Powell’s Alexandria, Va.-based secretary, Peggy Cifrino, said Powell felt lightheaded, “stumbled a bit and sat down” before an ambulance was called. She said he told her that the altitude – 7,900 feet – had most likely caused his illness.
Powell spent a few hours at the hospital, Cifrino said, where doctors examined him to check his overall health.
“He’s doing great,” she said.
Powell has been to Colorado several times, Cifrino said, and he said he had no concerns about remaining in Aspen through Sunday, when he will return to Washington.
Powell served as secretary of state from 2001 to 2005 after a four-year stint as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
