Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was hospitalized Thursday morning after falling and hitting his face, sustaining “minor injuries,” his spokesperson said in a statement.
In a post to the Democrat’s account on X, a spokesperson said Fetterman fell to the ground after feeling lightheaded on an early morning walk near his home in Braddock, Pennsylvania. He was transported to a hospital in Pittsburgh “out of an abundance of caution,” where doctors determined the dizzy spell was caused by a “ventricular fibrillation flare-up,” a heartbeat irregularity.
“Senator Fetterman had this to say: ‘If you thought my face looked bad before, wait until you see it now!’” the spokesperson relayed in the post.
Fetterman — who returned to his Pennsylvania home after the Senate’s vote to reopen the government on Monday — chose to stay at the hospital so doctors could “fine-tune his medication regimen,” though his team said he’s “doing well” and receiving routine observation. The post did not specify how long the senator is expected to remain at the hospital.
The incident is the latest in a series of health challenges the Pennsylvania senator has faced since his campaign for the seat. He was hospitalized due to a stroke in 2022 just days before winning the state’s Democratic Senate primary. He also spent several nights in the hospital in 2023 for a similar lightheadedness spell, but testing showed no signs of stroke or seizure, his office said at the time.
The senator checked himself into a hospital days later to receive inpatient care for clinical depression — something he’s lived with throughout his life and has since been vocal about in public appearances.
“It’s a risk that I wanted to take because I wanted to help people and know that I don’t want them to suffer the way — or put any kinds of despair that I’ve been in. And if that conversation helps, then that’s — I’m going to continue to do that,” Fetterman told NBC’s Kristen Welker in 2023.
