A woman in the audience fainted during President Barack Obama’s final press conference of 2016 on Friday, December 16. In the clip above, POTUS, 55, stops his remarks and calls on his personal physician, Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, to help out.
The unexpected moment occurred while Obama was speaking about the current refugee crisis in Aleppo, Syria. However, the commander-in-chief pressed pause on his comments when he noticed something wasn’t right at the back of the room.
Obama calmly asked if someone could take care of the situation. “Does somebody want to go to my doctor’s office.… Can somebody help out, please, and get Dr. Jackson in here,” he asked.
Moments later, the outgoing president provided instructions to his doctor’s office. “Go through the Palm doors. It’s right next to the Map Room,” he explained.
While the identity of the person who collapsed was not immediately clear, The Hill reports it was a female journalist. According to the outlet, she was helped into a chair and given water as Obama requested assistance, and regained consciousness about a minute later before being taken out of the room.
After the woman was cared for, Obama continued to answer reporters’ questions. With regard to the electoral college, the president said that it is “not his job” to determine its successor when asked if the current constructs should be revised. “It’s not in my hands now, it’s up to them,” he said. “The electoral college, it’s a vestige, it’s a carry-over from an earlier vision” of how our country operates.
Watch the video above. And see Us Weekly’s full recap of Obama’s news conference here.
