(DCWatchdog.com) – Freshman Democrat US Senator from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, has been admitted to a hospital for inpatient care for clinical depression, his office has announced.
According to Sen. Fetterman’s office, on Wednesday evening, he checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
He did so based on recommendations by Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of the US Congress.
“While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,” Fetterman’s office said.
“Yesterday, Dr. Monahan recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed. John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis,” the office added.
“After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care he needs, and will soon be back to himself,” the statement concluded.
The Democrat senator’s wife, Gisele Fetterman, posted the statement on her Twitter profile.
“After what he’s been through in the past year, there’s probably no one who wanted to talk about his own health less than John. I’m so proud of him for asking for help and getting the care he needs.”
Less than a week ago, National Review reported that Fetterman was briefly hospitalized for light-headedness at George Washington University hospital. Doctors let him go after establishing that he hadn’t suffered a new stroke.
On May 13, 2022, four days before winning the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, 53-year-old Fetterman suffered an ischemic stroke.
Even though he suffered from lingering side effects after the stroke, in the November 2022 midterms, he prevailed over Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, who former President Donald Trump backed.
“In addition to the CT, CTA, and MRI tests ruling out a stroke, his EEG test results came back normal, with no evidence of seizures,” Fetterman’s office said last week.
The freshman senator had spent two days in the hospital after experiencing light-headedness during a Senate Democratic retreat.
Critics have accused Fetterman and his team of downplaying his health issues. On the day the future US senator had surgery for the implantation of a pacemaker and defibrillator, his wife famously called his stroke a “little hiccup.”
Before the November vote, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette endorsed Mehmet Oz, largely due to what it called Fetterman’s “lack of transparency” over his health.
“Mr. Fetterman’s health — he suffered a serious stroke in May — is not the issue. His lack of transparency, however, in refusing to release his medical records is troubling. It suggests an impulse to conceal and a mistrust of the people. All candidates for a major elected office should release their medical records, as did Mr. Oz. If you want privacy, don’t run for public office,” the paper wrote at the time.
