Sen. Bernie Sanders returned to his home in Burlington, Vermont, on Saturday as he recovers from a heart attack.

The independent senator, 78, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, was taken to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center in Paradise, Nevada, on Tuesday for chest pains.

He was treated for what his campaign described at the time as a blockage in one artery.

But a statement from Sanders' doctors released through the campaign on Friday said Sanders "was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction," a medical term for a heart attack.

Sanders' medical team said in the statement that he was taken to the cardiac catheterization laboratory and "two stents were placed in a blocked coronary artery". The other arteries were normal, the statement said.

He was released from the hospital on Friday.

"I'm feeling so much better," Sanders said in a video posted Friday to his Twitter account. "I just want to thank all of you for the love and warm wishes that you sent to me."

He will be off the 2020 campaign trail for the next several days as he recovers, his team told NBC News. He is expected to take part in the next Democratic presidential debate on Oct. 15.

Before he was hospitalized, Sanders said he would release his medical records because the "American people have a right to know whether the person they are going to be voting for for president is healthy."