The US Secretary of Defense is released from hospital after two weeks

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III was released from the hospital Monday after a two-week stay due to complications from a prostate cancer operation that he kept secret from the White House for several days, the Pentagon announced.

Austin, 70, will continue to recover and perform his duties from home, per the advice of his doctors, before returning to the Pentagon full-time, the Defense Department said in a statement Monday.

“I am grateful for the excellent care I received at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and would like to thank the excellent physicians and nursing staff for their professionalism and excellent support,” Mr. Austin said in a separate statement Monday. “I am also thankful and grateful for all the good wishes I have received for a speedy recovery.”

Neither statement mentioned the uproar Mr. Austin's hospitalization had caused, damaging his credibility with President Biden and Congress and raising questions about his department's overall competency in handling the self-made crisis . All of that is now the subject of an ongoing Department of Defense investigation by the Inspector General.

The defense secretary, a retired four-star Army general, is fiercely private and guarded when discussing his medical problems.

Mr. Austin was in severe pain and was rushed by ambulance to Walter Reed on January 1. He was placed in intensive care after complications from an operation he underwent on December 22 to remove his prostate. But some top Pentagon officials did not learn of the secretary's hospitalization until the next day, Jan. 2. The White House was not notified until January 4, a major breach of protocol at the highest national security level. Complicating matters further, neither Pentagon nor White House officials learned until last Tuesday that Austin had been diagnosed with cancer in early December.

Two of Mr. Austin's doctors at Walter Reed, Dr. John Maddox, medical director of trauma, and Dr. Gregory Chesnut, director of the Center for Prostate Disease Research, said in the Pentagon statement that the secretary was “making good progress during his stay and his The strength returns.”

“He underwent a battery of medical tests and evaluations and received non-surgical care during his stay to manage his medical needs, including resolution of some persistent pain in his legs,” the doctors added, noting that he received physical therapy and will undergo periodic check-ups after the operation. and is expected to make a full recovery.

“Secretary Austin's prostate cancer was treated early and effectively and his prognosis is excellent,” the doctors said.