The Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, was discharged after his latest hospitalization for bladder problems. The official left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon and resumed all his government duties, although he plans to work from home before returning to the Pentagon.
The official had been hospitalized again on Monday, due to a bladder problem that had to do with his previous hospitalization in December. According to reports, he underwent non-surgical procedures under general anesthesia and the problem was solved.
On this occasion, the White House, Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks were formally notified.
Austin plans to work from home until the end of the week to finish recovery, so he will miss an in-person meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. However, he is expected to virtually attend a meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group on Wednesday.
The controversy with Lloyd Austin
On Friday, January 5, the Pentagon revealed that the Secretary of Defense had been hospitalized since New Year's, when he began to feel "severe pain." Up to this point everything seems to be normal for a person who does not feel in good health.
However, the problem is that practically no one within the Federal Government was informed of the Austin's sickness, not even Joe Biden himself.
The official himself acknowledged through a statement that he should have better managed the communication of his admission, and assumed full responsibility for the decision to hide it even from the president of the administration.
"I also understand the media concerns about transparency and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better. But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure," the official wrote.
Austin is scheduled to testify in front of Congress to explain the situation on February 29.
