Senator Johnson Update

Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota, has been discharged from the hospital and moved to a private rehabilitation facility. The location of the facility was not disclosed, that the Senator may focus on his recovery.

He is spending a lot of time in Speech, Physical and Occupational Therapy sessions, with a key focus of his treatment being strengthening his right side, which was compromised by the time he reached the hospital emergency department on December 13 of last year.

The Senator underwent emergency surgery to repair an Arterio-Venous Malformation (AVM) that had ruptured. An AVM is a congenital circulatory defect, and most people who have one never know it. Most are discovered when another condition is being treated. An AVM is basically a tangle of oversized arteries and veins. Most don't rupture and cause no difficulty, but some do. Senator Johnson's was a pretty severe case.

In 1988, Senator Joe Biden suffered an aneurysm (different etiology, but very similar in consequence) and was absent from the Senate for six months. He recovered and returned and no one even thinks about it today. We have gotten a lot better at treating these things in the last 20 years, so I optimistically look for the Senator to return to the Senate at least part-time and to cast key votes by mid-April.

Now, the Senator just needs time and therapy, and he is getting both at the rehab facility he has selected.

An aide to the Senator was quoted as saying the Senator was working hard at the physical aspect of his recovery with the intent to run for and retain his seat in 2008. Some time back he began resuming some of his senatorial duties from his hospital bed.

I wish him a speedy and thorough recovery and look forward to his triumphant return to the Upper Chamber.