“I think he deserves a month off to come back as strong as ever,” Giselle Fetterman said in an interview with CNN. “This is going to be a tough and very important race. I want you to be fully prepared for it.”
When asked if John Fetterman, who serves as Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, would run again in July in one of the country’s most important Senate contests, he replied, “Maybe. I think so. That’s my hope. “.
Fetterman was admitted to a hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on May 13 while on his way to a campaign event. He was found to have suffered a stroke, which was treated by doctors, and was released on May 22 after a nine-day stay. Fetterman’s cardiologist said Friday that the candidate suffers from both atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathy.
In an interview in her hometown of Braddock, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Giselle Fetterman rejected the idea that the campaign had not been completely transparent about her husband’s health. She had initially described her stroke as a hiccup, and the severity of her illness was not revealed until 17 days later.
“It’s still a hiccup,” he said Monday. “Families are going through a health crisis. Our family is not unique to what we have been through, only that we have had to go through it very publicly.”
Despite multiple statements during and after his hospital stay, John Fetterman did not previously reveal that he had been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in 2017. And while his cardiologist’s letter published on Friday gave a view of the which caused Fetterman’s stroke, doctors who performed the procedure on the Lancaster candidate last month have not yet spoken publicly.
The candidate said in a statement last week that his doctors had told him to “rest, eat healthy, exercise and focus on my recovery” and therefore “it will take longer to return to the campaign as in It was before the primaries “.
Giselle Fetterman said Monday that they have been posting information as soon as they receive it and said, “I think we’ve been incredibly transparent.”
“I just want people to remember that we’re real people. This is a real family with kids watching the news, following everything, and the moment we get new information, we publish it,” he said. “That’s why we shared the doctor’s latest statement. As soon as we (had) it available, it came out. I think it’s important to share it. Not just because I think transparency is important, but because I hope it inspires to others to take action on their own health “.
She said the stroke, which she discovered after seeing her husband’s lips move in a peculiar way as they went to a campaign event in the days leading up to the primary election, was a wake-up call.
“It was. I hate that I had to learn it the hard way,” he said. “I am grateful that he is alive and well.”
And when asked if he could imagine a scenario in which he could not return to the campaign in one of the most popular contests in the nation, in which he faces Republican candidate Mehmet Oz, he quickly said no.
“I don’t see it, but the most important thing is that your doctors don’t see it,” he said. “Everyone is confident that he will fully recover.”
She also said the campaign was not opposed to the Lancaster medical team divulging more information that her husband had been treated for the stroke, but said Lancaster General Hospital’s policy was not to talk about patient care.
“We asked for it, but that’s not the hospital protocol,” he said. “It’s not up to us, we asked. That depends on your policies.”
CNN’s Dan Merica contributed to this report.