Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday and has resumed his full duties after being hospitalized for a second time since his prostate cancer diagnosis last December, the Pentagon said
“On the advice of his doctors, Secretary Austin will recuperate and perform his duties remotely from home for a period before returning to work at the Pentagon later this week,” the Department of Defense said in a statement. “He has full access to the unclassified and classified communications systems necessary to perform his duties.”
The 70-year-old Pentagon chief has been plagued by ongoing health issues since secretly undergoing surgery in December to treat prostate cancer – a diagnosis that he withheld from top government officials, including President Biden.
Austin was admitted to Walter Reed’s intensive care unit Sunday for a bladder issue and underwent a non-surgical procedure under general anesthesia on Monday, according to his doctors.
“He remained in good condition throughout and no longer needed critical care monitoring on the morning of Feb. 13,” Dr. John Maddox, the trauma medical director, and Dr. Gregory Chesnut, director of the Center for Prostate Disease Research at the Murtha Cancer Center, of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, said in a statement.
The doctors noted that