PHILADELPHIA — Five weeks after Sen. John Fetterman's hospitalization for clinical depression, his staff says the stay is coming to an end soon, though no certain timeline was offered for his return.
"John will be out soon," spokesperson Joe Calvello said. "Over a week but soon. Recovery is going really well. We have an amazing team at Walter Reed."
Fetterman's public acknowledgment in mid-February that he was suffering from depression and decision to seek treatment were heralded by many of his colleagues as a courageous disclosure about an often stigmatized topic. Intense scrutiny over his recovery and inpatient care has continued, though, after questions about his long-term health after a stroke in May.
A five-week hospital stay is considered somewhat long for inpatient depression care. But members of Fetterman's team have said they aren't rushing his return and they expect him to be able to return to the key requirements of his new job.
"It's about John getting the care he needs and not rushing this," a senior aide told The Inquirer. "Six weeks is a grain of sand in a six-year term. He's doing what he needs to do."
Since he went into the hospital, Fetterman's staff has been making frequent visits most mornings to give him updates from Capitol Hill. Fetterman has also cosponsored legislation while hospitalized. He hasn't voted since Feb. 15, though there have been few major legislative decisions to come before the Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow majority. The Senate has spent almost all its time on confirmation votes, mostly on noncontroversial nominees who have enough support to advance even without Fetterman.
His wife, Gisele, has posted pictures of visits as well.
As Fetterman recovers, his aides have opened offices across the state, hired staff to reach out to constituent groups, and set up operations for constituent services.
A number of senators have missed far more time than Fetterman — some close to a year — due to strokes or other ailments. And aides have done most of the lifting for some older senators who have declined while in office. The difference for Fetterman is his absence came just two months into his tenure.
A prolonged hospital stay
Hospital stays for depression are usually shorter than that of Fetterman, who has been at Walter Reed for close to 40 days. A 2019 study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that the average length of hospital stay was six days.
"Our average stay is around seven days," said Brittni Jones, the medical director of the inpatient psychiatric units at Main Line Health's Bryn Mawr Hospital. "It really just depends if there's a variable that we can modify to make your life better."
Fetterman's stay has been prolonged because his doctors are working on getting his "medication balance exactly right," a source close to Fetterman told CNN earlier this month. The source noted an issue with the senator's blood-pressure medication that might have contributed to dizziness.
A weeklong hospitalization, while the norm, is too short to assess whether some medications are having their desired effect, said Alexander Tsai, a psychiatrist at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School.
"It would take six to eight, if not 10 to 12 weeks to really know if an antidepressant really 'works' for you," Tsai said, adding that one benefit of hospitalization is the ability to adjust medications quickly.
Working while hospitalized could delay recovery, too. Having a patient focused on work can be a serious challenge, Jones said.
Most patients in psychiatric units don't have access to the internet, their cell phone, or anything that will distract them from focusing on their own mental well-being.
Accommodating work happens on a case-by-case basis, she said, depending on the capacity of the patient and how disruptive the demand of the job would be to recovery.
It's unclear how much access Fetterman has to outside communications, but his office has emphasized that he's engaged during his daily in-person briefings with aides.
Asked about Fetterman's return on Capitol Hill this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said only that Fetterman is recovering.
"We want to give him the space to recuperate," Schumer said at a Wednesday news conference. "He needs it. It's fair, it's right. There are other people in the Senate who have taken their time to recuperate, but I'm confident he's going to come back and be an outstanding and fine senator."
