A spokesman for the first-term senator from Pennsylvania, who suffered a near-fatal stroke last year, said his depression had grown severe in recent weeks, as he has worked to adjust to life in the Senate.
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Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, checked into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Wednesday to receive treatment for clinical depression.
WASHINGTON — Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, who was hospitalized last week after feeling lightheaded, checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Wednesday night to receive treatment for clinical depression, his office said on Thursday.
“While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,” Adam Jentleson, his chief of staff, said in a statement. He said that after undergoing an evaluation on Monday by Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician in Congress, Mr. Fetterman followed the recommendation for inpatient care at Walter Reed.
“John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis,” Mr. Jentleson said.
Mr. Fetterman, 53, was admitted to George Washington University Hospital last week after feeling unwell during a daylong Senate Democratic retreat. He spent two days in the stroke unit, where he underwent an M.R.I. and other tests that ruled out another stroke and remained free of any seizures, a spokesman said.
The decision to seek help at Walter Reed underscored the challenges, both physical and emotional, that Mr. Fetterman has been dealing with since entering the Senate last month, a transition that has been vastly more difficult because of the strains of his recovery.
Source: nytimes.com
