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(CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton fainted during a luncheon speech Monday in upstate New York, citing a 24-hour virus, but she recovered and resumed her public schedule.

Clinton, 57, was speaking at the Saturn Club in Buffalo, said Erie County Democratic Chairman Len Lenihan, who greeted her upon her arrival.

"She said she was not feeling well, looked pale," he said. "She told the crowd she was queasy."

"She said she was going to sit and talk," Lenihan said. At that, she took the microphone but then said she felt warm and left the room to remove the jacket of her black jumpsuit, he said.

Upon her return, at about 12:15 p.m., the senator fainted as her staff placed the microphone in front of her, Lenihan said.

Her Secret Service agents quickly surrounded the former first lady, and four people broke her fall, he said.

"They took her down gracefully; let's put it that way," said Lenihan.

Among the attendees was Dr. Stephanie Pincus, a leading doctor in New York and professor at the University of Buffalo.

"She has had a GI virus -- an acute gastrointestinal illness -- and she has been sick for at least a day and she needed some fluids; she needed to sit down and relax," Pincus told a reporter for television station WIVB.

"She had clearly consulted with physicians beforehand," Pincus said. "She came in, she said she wasn't feeling well. She felt hot. She had stepped out to remove some of her heavier clothing, and it was just too much for her to continue."

Pincus predicted the senator would feel "much better within the next 24 to 48 hours."