“We expect a full and complete recovery for Senator Lautenberg. The senator will be treated with chemotherapy administered approximately every three weeks. We anticipate that he will receive between six and eight treatments, and in between treatments, the senator is expected to be back at work in the Senate.”Despite being the second oldest members of Congress (behind Richard Byrd), he has been quite active in recent months, including a trip to Haiti last week to tour the damage in Port au Prince.
Lautenberg took ill Monday while at home in Cliffside Park. He fell down and phoned his doctor and an ambulance. The senator directed the ambulance to transport him to Manhattan for treatment at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he has been hospitalized ever since. Lautenberg never lost consciousness, his aides said.
Doctors quickly determined that Lautenberg had fallen due to blood loss from a bleeding ulcer. The bleeding was stopped during an endoscopy. Additional pathology tests revealed the ulcer was caused by a b-cell lymphoma of the stomach.
I wish him and his family well. It doesn't sound like he's going to miss much time in Congress, or that this will somehow prevent him from completing his term in office. Still, his current term ends in 2014, so that if he were somehow forced to step down, it would mean that Republican Governor Chris Christie would have the power to appoint an interim senator.
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