John Fetterman Hospitalized
John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, spent the night in the hospital after joining other members of Congress to address the State of the Union. Fetterman reported feeling dizzy Wednesday and was observed overnight, his office said.
The senator is in good spirits and has spoken with his staff and family, his office said. Fetterman’s communications director, Joe Calvello, said in a statement to reporters that he was attending a Senate Democratic retreat when he began to feel ill. The retreat was reportedly held at the Library of Congress. “After he left, he called his staff and they picked him up and took him to George Washington University Hospital,” Calvillo said.
John Fetterman health has been an obstacle to his entry into the Senate. He suffered a stroke last year just before winning his main event. That led to a pacemaker and defibrillator being implanted, and John Fetterman said he had previously been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm that can cause circulation problems. “Initial tests showed no signs of another stroke,” Calvillo said, but doctors wanted more tests to keep the senator overnight.
News of John Fetterman latest hospitalization came just days after he joined President Biden and other Democrats at the Democratic National Committee’s winter convention in Philadelphia.
In November, John Fetterman , 53, won the seat of now-retired Republican Pat Toomey after a close race against Republican candidate Mehmet Oz. Fetterman, who is serving as lieutenant governor, beat the prominent heart surgeon by 5 points, flipping a seat that was crucial to the Democratic majority in the Senate.
More than $300 million was spent on the campaign, making it the most expensive Senate race in 2022. His campaign was derailed on May 13 when he suffered what he later described as a near-fatal stroke days before the Democratic primary.
He spent much of the rest of the campaign recuperating, refusing to release his medical records or make his doctors available to answer questions from reporters. Oz questioned whether his opponent was being honest about the impact of the stroke and Fetterman’s fitness for duty, but the Democrat insisted his doctors said he would make a full recovery.
As a result of the stroke, John Fetterman has struggled with auditory processing disorders, a common consequence of a person’s inability to speak fluently or quickly translate spoken conversation into meaning. The impact of the shock was evident in Fetterman’s uneven performance in the only debate of the fall campaign, as he struggled to complete sentences and slurred words.
On election night, he told cheering supporters that he was running for “anyone who gets knocked down and gets back up.”
Fetterman, who is 6 feet tall with a clean-shaven goatee and is known for wearing a hoodie and shorts, will serve as lieutenant governor from 2019 to 2023. From 2006 to 2019, he was the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania.
Sen. John Fetterman went to the hospital Wednesday night after feeling “light-headed,” his office said in a statement. Fetterman (D-Pa.), who suffered a stroke last May, left the Senate Democratic Retreat on Wednesday and called his staff, who rushed him to George Washington University Hospital in Washington.
Although initial tests showed no signs of another stroke, doctors continued to run tests and Fetterman was kept overnight for “observation,” his office said. “He is in good spirits and talking to his staff and family,” his office said. “We will provide more information as it becomes available.”
Fetterman, 53, who is recovering from a stroke he suffered in May — just days before the primary — is running for a Senate seat, winning the primary while in the hospital and ultimately defeating Republican candidate Mehmet Oz. The Pennsylvania Democrat, a cardiologist, said Fetterman has both atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathy.
His recovery became a major point of contention during the campaign, especially after a televised debate with Oz in which Fetterman stammered and struggled to form sentences. Some Republicans questioned his ability to serve as a senator, while Fetterman’s supporters praised his courage.