Rep. Mark DeSaulnier was moved out of intensive care Monday but remains hospitalized as he continues to recover from pneumonia, a complication from a rib fracture he sustained after falling during a run.
The California Democrat’s move out of intensive care came exactly one month after he entered the hospital on March 13.
“Our Dad is a fighter, he has made good progress, and today he moved out of the intensive care unit and will continue to be treated in the hospital for non-COVID pneumonia, and begin a journey towards recovery,” the congressman’s sons Tristan and Tucker DeSaulnier said in a statement Monday. “This would be difficult enough at any time, but given the daily dangers we all face from the coronavirus, his path ahead is especially complicated.”
DeSaulnier tested negative for COVID-19 shortly after entering the hospital — a test he was given out of an abundance of caution. But the pneumonia has weakened his immune system, making him more vulnerable to the virus if he were to contract it.
When DeSaulnier was first diagnosed with pneumonia after fracturing his rib, his chief of staff Betsy Arnold Marr said he was in serious but stable condition and would likely be in the hospital for several days.
On March 21, she announced that DeSaulnier’s condition had deteriorated and he was in critical condition.
Updates provided since then have come from DeSaulnier’s sons as the congressman remained in critical but stable condition for weeks before he was healthy enough to move out of intensive care Monday.
“We are incredibly grateful for the tireless efforts of the ICU doctors, nurses, and hospital staff who cared for our dad and go above and beyond for everyone who enters their doors,” Tristan and Tucker DeSaulnier said.
DeSaulnier was diagnosed in 2015, his first year in Congress, with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a chronic blood cancer that doctors liken to diabetes and hypertension.
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