Sen. Chris Murphy leaves hospital after stroke, faces weeks of rehabilitation

Sen. Chris Murphy was discharged from a Baltimore hospital Friday after a stroke last weekend and said he will spend several weeks at a rehabilitation center, keeping him away from Senate votes while he recovers.

The Connecticut Democrat, 53, said he called 911 on Saturday after sensing something was wrong. “I want to be direct with you, so here is my diagnosis,” Murphy said in a statement. “Last Saturday afternoon, I felt something was not right with my body and called 9-1-1 out of an abundance of caution, and I’m glad I did.”

Murphy said doctors found a small bleed in the thalamus region of his brain. Dr. Jose Suarez, chief of neurosciences critical care at Johns Hopkins, described it as a small hemorrhagic stroke. The senator was discharged from The Johns Hopkins Hospital after being transferred there from a local hospital.

“He has shown tremendous progress, and at the current rate of improvement, we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation,” Suarez said in a statement released by Murphy’s office.

Murphy said he was taking his recovery seriously and would spend several weeks at a rehabilitation center to “get back to work on the quickest timeline possible.” CBS News reported that he will miss several weeks of votes.

“This has been a scary experience for me and my family, and I appreciate the continued respect for our privacy,” Murphy said. He said he was staying engaged with his team and colleagues remotely and that his staff would continue its legislative work and service to constituents.

Murphy’s chief of staff, Allison Herwitt, said Sunday that the senator had begun experiencing numbness in his arm while at his son’s hockey game the previous day. He was taken to a local hospital, where doctors discovered he had suffered a stroke, and was then transferred to Johns Hopkins for monitoring. Herwitt said at the time that Murphy was awake and alert, was responding well to treatment and that doctors were encouraged by his progress.

NBC News reported that the cause of the stroke was unclear. A hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures and bleeds, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The clinic says the thalamus, located above the brainstem, relays sensory information between the spinal cord and the brain.

Murphy serves as deputy secretary of the Senate Democratic Caucus and sits on the Appropriations; Foreign Relations; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees. He served in the House from 2007 to 2013 before joining the Senate. He has also been viewed as a possible candidate for president in 2028.