Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will have to undergo surgery later this week to repair a fractured right elbow, caused when she slipped and fell on her way to a White House meeting on Wednesday evening, the State Department said Thursday.

Mrs. Clinton, 61, was taken to George Washington University hospital, where doctors determined the break would require an operation, said a State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley. "She is at home, resting comfortably or uncomfortably," he said.

Mr. Crowley said Mrs. Clinton was reading papers and making calls. But she cancelled her public schedule, which included an appearance with the actress Angelina Jolie at an event marking World Refugee Day and an awards ceremony at the American Foreign Service Association.

The mishap occurred just before 5 p.m. when Mrs. Clinton was walking from an elevator to her car in the basement of the State Department. She was headed to a meeting with President Obama, accompanied by the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke.

After Mrs. Clinton fell, Mr. Holbrooke said, "She struggled to get up to go the meeting, but the pain was very intense." Still lying on the ground, she instructed Mr. Holbrooke to go without her, and reminded him to brief the president about an upcoming visit to Afghanistan by the State Department's new ambassador for women's issues, Melanne Verveer.

"She said, 'Go to the meeting, that's an order,' " said Mr. Holbrooke, who told Mr. Obama about the accident.

Mrs. Clinton returned to her 7th floor office before deciding to get treatment at George Washington, a few blocks from the State Department. She was at the hospital for several hours. While painful, the injury appeared to be a "fairly simple, straightforward fracture," Mr. Crowley said.

Former President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton flew to Washington together on Wednesday evening to be with Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Obama called Mrs. Clinton at home around 10 p.m.

Her surgery has not been scheduled yet, officials said, throwing Mrs. Clinton's travel plans into doubt. She is scheduled to go to a meeting next week of foreign ministers of Group of Eight countries in Trieste, Italy, as well as a European security meeting on the island of Corfu, Greece.

The mishap is the second to befall the Obama administration in recent weeks. The president's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, tripped and broke her ankle while running to catch a plane at LaGuardia Airport. In addition, Robert M. Gates noted on Thursday that his tenure as defense secretary has been injury-prone.

Mr. Gates offered his sympathies to Mrs. Clinton. "Having broken my right arm as secretary of defense, and had the left arm operated on, I think I can truthfully say, I feel her pain," he said at a news conference.




By Mark Landler, The New York Times, June 18, 2009