Dr. Mehmet Oz has spoken out after his 11-year-old granddaughter fainted in the Oval Office on Friday.
Last week, while President Donald Trump was speaking during Oz’s swearing-in as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, his granddaughter, Philomena, passed out.
His daughter, Daphne, posted on Instagram Sunday to thank those who reached out regarding her daughter’s health and to provide an update.
“Thank you to everyone checking in on Philo after her big day in the Oval Office,” the post’s caption began. “We are so grateful it was nothing serious, and she bounced right back — with a trip for some delicious Navy Mess soft serve for good measure!!”
“Thank you to the incredible White House team and medical staff who were so kind to her,” the caption continued. “Most of all, thank you to President Trump who went out of his way to make both our children feel comfortable in a stressful situation. He was exceedingly warm, caring and generous as he spent personal time with each of them at the Resolute Desk and gifted them treasures to take home. A more than memorable day at the White House for all of us!!”
Oz also posted an update regarding Philomena on his own Instagram page Sunday, showing off a photo of her and her brother Jovan eating ice cream.
“Thank you to everyone who has checked in on our granddaughter Philomena after her eventful afternoon in the Oval Office. I am grateful to report she recovered quickly and was treated to delicious Navy Mess soft serve,” he captioned the post.
In addition to Daphne and her children, Oz’s wife, Lisa, and their other three children, Oliver, Arabella, and Zoe, were at the swearing-in ceremony.
Moments before the alarming health incident, Oz — who ended his television career to mount an ultimately unsuccessful campaign for a Pennsylvania Senate seat in 2022 — had been administered the oath of office by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist who Trump tapped to run the government's medical and health care regulatory bureaucracy.
As he introduced Oz, Trump said the former television host had “come to this position as one of the nation's most talented and beloved medical professionals,” before proceeding to recite highlights from Oz's resume — including his Harvard undergraduate education, his medical degree from Penn (the president’s alma mater), time as Director of the Cardiovascular Institute and integrative medicine program at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and as a professor at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The assembled members of the White House press corps who’d been brought to the Oval Office to witness his swearing-in were quickly ushered out shortly after Philomena fainted.
A White House official said of the event at the time: “A minor family member fainted during Dr. Oz’s swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office. We are happy to say she is OK.”
