Sen. John Fetterman has resumed some duties since checking into the hospital a week earlier for clinical depression, according to the team.
Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s chief of staff, tweeted the photo Monday showed Pennsylvania Democrats working as a team on Senate-related issues. The photo appears to have been taken inside the hospital, showing the senator doing work while continuing to work on his mental health.
“Productive morning with Senator Fetterman at Walter Reed discussing rail safety legislation, Farm Bill and other Senate business,” Jentleson tweeted. “John is on the mend and wants me to say thank you very much for all the wishes. He is laser focused on PA and will be back.
Fetterman checked himself into the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on February 16 after struggling with his depression, drawing widespread support for voluntary help seeking and normalizing prioritizing mental health. Fetterman has been open about his mental health and previous episodes of depression, but Jentleson said at the time of his hospitalization that Fetterman’s depression “just got worse in the last couple of weeks.”
Last year, Fetterman was hospitalized after suffering a stroke caused by atrial fibrillation — the cause of the auditory processing disorder that the senator’s political opponents tried to bring against him. Dr. Will Cronenwett, chief of psychiatry at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told The Associated Press that about a third of stroke patients experience depression after an episode.
Last week, Fetterman’s spokesman Joe Calvello said the senator “remains on the road to recovery” but that recovery “will be a weeks-long process.” Fetterman begins treatment at the recommended inpatient level, where patients typically eventually drop to one or two levels of outpatient care before discharge.
He “visits staff and families daily, and keeps his staff updated on Senate business and news,” Calvello said in a statement. “Our team is moving fast and working hard for the people of Pennsylvania. Just last week, we opened a new office in Erie and will be opening several more in the coming weeks.