by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III was released from the hospital on Monday after a two-week stay due to complications from prostate cancer surgery that he had kept secret from the White House for several days, the US Department of Defense announced. Pentagon.
Austin, 70, following the advice of his doctors, will continue to recover and perform his duties from home before returning full-time to the Pentagon, the Defense Department said in a statement Monday.
“I am grateful for the excellent care I received at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and want to thank the outstanding doctors and nursing staff for their professionalism and excellent support,” Mr. Austin said in a separate statement on Monday. “I am also grateful and grateful for all the good wishes I received for a speedy recovery.”
Neither statement mentioned the uproar that Austin’s hospitalization had caused, damaging his credibility with President Biden and Congress, and raising questions about his department’s overall competence in dealing with the crisis of its own making. All of that is now the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general.
The defense secretary, a retired four-star Army general, is fiercely private and has been cautious about discussing his medical problems.
Mr. Austin was in severe pain and was taken by ambulance to Walter Reed on January 1. He was placed in intensive care after complications from surgery he underwent on December 22 to remove his prostate. But several senior Pentagon officials did not learn of the secretary’s hospitalization until the next day, January 2. The White House was not notified until Jan. 4, a major breach of protocol at the highest levels of national security. To further complicate matters, neither the Pentagon nor White House officials learned until last Tuesday that Austin had been diagnosed with cancer in early December.
Two of Mr. Austin’s doctors at Walter Reed, Dr. John Maddox, medical director of trauma, and Dr. Gregory Chesnut, director of the prostate disease research center, said in the Pentagon statement that the secretary “He progressed well during his stay and his strength is rebounding.”
“He underwent a series of medical tests and evaluations and received non-surgical care during his stay to address his medical needs, including resolution of some persistent leg pain,” the doctors added, noting that he will undergo physical therapy and be will undergo periodic post-surgical controls. and she is expected to make a full recovery.
“Secretary Austin’s prostate cancer was treated early and effectively, and his prognosis is excellent,” doctors said.
