Mystery Deepens About Giuliani Headache

Dec. 21, 2007— -- After spending the night and the better part of a day in a Missouri hospital complaining of severe headaches and flulike symptoms, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani arrived home in New York late Thursday.

The former mayor spoke to reporters outside his Manhattan apartment building with his wife, Judith, at his side.

"I'm doing fine. I'm doing great," Giuliani said. "I want to thank my wife, Judith. She's been with me through many different things, and there's one great asset in having a wife that's a nurse: Whenever you have any kind of medical issue, she can calm you, help you."

What was wrong? What tests did he get? What was causing such severe pains? Giuliani gave no details.

His campaign will not release any concrete medical information to the press -- raising questions about the former New York mayor's health and the transparency of his campaign.

Giuliani was experiencing headache pain so severe Wednesday night he had his charter plane turn around and go back to St. Louis and was rushed to the emergency room.

His campaign shared no concrete medical information about which tests the mayor undertook and what the exact results were, also refraining from allowing the media to see his medical records or speak to his doctors.

A senior Giuliani campaign official told ABC News, "He's fine. He campaigns very vigorously. He did 77 events in 53 cities this month. He just got sick."

The former mayor was all smiles for the cameras as he left Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis Thursday afternoon after spending the night and the better part of a day in a Missouri hospital.

"I feel great. Take care. Merry Christmas, I'm feeling fine, thanks to the hospital. They did a great job," Giuliani said, refusing to answer any reporters' questions as he left the hospital.

Giuliani's campaign released a statement from communications director Katie Levinson saying he was leaving the hospital after staying overnight with "a clean bill of health. Doctors performed a series of precautionary tests, and the results of all the tests were normal."

In New York, Judith Giuliani made a brief statement to reporters Thursday afternoon, saying her husband is "in very good health" and would be coming home, but she did not answer any questions.

The presidential candidate's wife said that she "spent most of the night on the telephone with the doctors and the wonderful nurses at Barnes Jewish Hospital. They assured me that Rudy is in very good health."

From the lymphoma of former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas or the irregular heart rhythm of former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, every medical issue takes on greater consequence in the harsh glare of the presidential stage.