Sen. Chris Murphy discharged from hospital after stroke

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., was discharged from The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, after suffering what his doctor called a “small hemorrhagic stroke” last weekend, his office announced Friday. Murphy, 53, said in a written statement that he will be spending “several weeks at a rehabilitation center” after being discharged from the hospital. “Last Saturday afternoon, I felt something was not right with my body and called 9-1-1 out of an abundance of caution, and I’m glad I did,” Murphy said. “I was diagnosed with a small bleed in the thalamus region of my brain.” Calling the medical event “a scary experience for me and my family,” Murphy said he is “staying engaged with my team and colleagues remotely” as he works toward his recovery, “and my staff continues to carry out our legislative priorities, serve constituents, and ensure the work of my office continues uninterrupted.” Dr. Jose Suarez, Johns Hopkins’ chief of neurosciences critical care, said in a statement provided by the senator’s office that Murphy “has shown tremendous progress, and at the current rate of improvement, we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation.” A hemorrhagic stroke happens when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures and bleeds. Some of the symptoms include headaches, dizziness, trouble understanding or speaking, one-sided weakness, neck stiffness and fainting, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It’s unclear what led to the senator’s stroke. Murphy’s chief of staff, Allison Herwitt, said in a statement Sunday that the senator had experienced the stroke a day earlier when he “started experiencing numbness in his arm while at his son’s hockey game.” “He was taken to a local hospital, where it was discovered he had experienced a stroke,” Herwitt said. “He was transferred to Johns Hopkins for further monitoring and is responding well to treatment.” She added that the senator was awake and alert, and the doctors were encouraged by his progress. Murphy was not up for re-election Tuesday, but he had been actively campaigning for fellow Democrats. He’s considered a potential 2028 presidential contender. Murphy is the deputy secretary of the Senate Democratic Caucus, a role that could change in the new Congress with his party set to take the majority early next year. He sits on the Appropriations Foreign Relations, and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees, and served in the House from 2007 to 2013 before becoming a senator that year. Three other Democratic senators have had strokes in recent years, including Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.