Va. legislator leaves hospital, tweets 'I am alive'

Catalina Camia | USA TODAY

Virginia state Sen. Creigh Deeds was released from the hospital Friday after being stabbed multiple times earlier this week.

"I am alive so must live. Some wounds won't heal," Deeds posted on Twitter. "Your prayers and your friendship are important to me."

Eric Swensen, a spokesman for the University of Virginia Medical Center, had no further comment on Deeds to the Associated Press. The veteran state lawmaker was the 2009 Democratic nominee for Virginia governor.

Deeds, 55, was airlifted to the UVA hospital in Charlottesville on Tuesday from rural Bath County after police say the legislator's son, Gus, stabbed his father multiple times then shot himself with a rifle.

Virginia health officials are looking into why Austin Deeds, better known as Gus, was released from emergency custody the day before the violent attack.

The young man had undergone a mental health evaluation. Gus Deeds, 24, was released because no psychiatric beds were available in the area for him, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch interview with Dennis Cropper, executive director of the Rockbridge County Community Services Board.

Deeds lost the 2009 governor's race to Republican Bob McDonnell, who leaves office in January. McDonnell has ordered a review of Virginia's mental health system on the state and local levels.

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