(CNN) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders suffered a heart attack, his campaign confirmed on Friday after he departed Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas.

"I want to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff at the Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center for the excellent care that they provided," Sanders said in a statement Friday. "After two and a half days in the hospital, I feel great, and after taking a short time off, I look forward to getting back to work."

Sanders is traveling back to Burlington, Vermont, on Saturday to continue his recovery, campaign spokesman Mike Casca said.

Sanders' treating physicians -- Arturo Marchand Jr., MD, and Arjun Gururaj, MD -- confirmed that the senator was diagnosed with a "myocardial infarction" and had two stents placed in a blocked coronary artery, noting that "all other arteries were normal." Myocardial infarction is the medical term for a heart attack.

They added that Sanders' hospital stay and treatment were "uneventful with good expected progress," and that he had been instructed "to follow up with his personal physician."

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