Fetterman is released from hospital, planning to return to Senate on Monday

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was discharged from the hospital, his office announced Friday, and expects to return to the Senate on Monday.

Fetterman was hospitalized overnight Wednesday at George Washington University Hospital in Washington after suffering from lightheadedness, his spokesman Joe Calvello said. On Thursday, Fetterman’s doctors ruled out that he’d suffered a second stroke. Fetterman, 53, had a stroke in May, when he was Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor and running for the Senate.

“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,” Calvello said in a statement Friday. “John is looking forward to spending some time with his family and returning to the Senate on Monday.”

Fetterman had attended a retreat for Democratic senators Wednesday when he began to feel ill. He left the event and called staffers, who took him to the hospital, Calvello said in a statement to reporters early Thursday.

Fetterman beat Republican celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in November to succeed retiring Republican Patrick J. Toomey and flip a seat that helped Democrats increase their Senate majority.

His stroke was in sharp focus during a televised debate in which he sometimes stumbled over his words and struggled with the rapid-fire format. Some viewers hailed his bravery, while others questioned his ability to work.

The senator has explained that his stroke was caused “by a clot from my heart being in an A-fib rhythm for too long.”

Doctors were able to “quickly and completely remove the clot,” he said in May. “It’s a good reminder to listen to your body and be aware of the signs.”

Because Democrats have a 51-seat majority in the Senate, a single absence could affect their agenda. The party is mainly focused on getting as many of President Biden’s judicial nominations through the chamber as possible given that, because of the divided Congress, there’s little major legislation under consideration.

“What John’s opponents never understood, and still do not understand, is that people relate to him and are rooting for him. Everything else flows from that,” Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s chief of staff, noted in a tweet Thursday.

And Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, thanked those well-wishers on Twitter on Thursday, saying this was a “hectic time” but that the family was happy to share that “there are no signs of a stroke.”