Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, broke his silence on Sunday about his long hospitalization, releasing a statement saying that he was recovering at a rehabilitation center after suffering a fall and losing consciousness last month, and then battling a “mild” case of pneumonia.
“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion,” Mr. McConnell said in the statement, which included a photograph of him holding a newspaper published on Sunday alongside and his wife, Elaine Chao. “I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages.”
Mr. McConnell said he had been taken by emergency responders to the hospital after falling “briefly unconscious.”
The 84-year-old senator’s statement came as questions have mounted over what prompted his lengthy hospitalization, what his condition is, and whether he would ever return to the Senate. Emergency responders reported performing CPR on an unconscious individual suffering cardiac arrest at the senator’s Washington address last month on the morning he was hospitalized. Scant statements from his office have only fueled rampant speculation across Capitol Hill and the country regarding his medical status and if he would make it back to the Senate floor.
Mr. McConnell said he had left the hospital and that he was entering a physical rehabilitation center to help him regain strength after the fall. He did not provide an estimate of when he would return to work.
