Bernie Sanders isn't about to start taking sick days now

Bernie Sanders Has Hernia Surgery – And Goes Back to Work Less Than a Day Later

No post-op pampering for Bernie Sanders.

The Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate, 74, walked out of the George Washington University Hospital Monday evening after successful afternoon surgery to repair an inguinal hernia in his abdomen. And, not 12 hours later, he walked into his Senate office for a day’s work.

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“He’s right back to work,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs tells PEOPLE. “He walked into the office this morning in the Dirksen building. He has Budget Committee meetings.”

Sanders, who is mounting a challenge to Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, often boasts of his fine health.

In June, Sanders told ABC News “I’m blessed with endurance, I’m blessed with health.”

“I don’t think I’ve taken a day off because of sickness in several years,” Sanders said.

And he is not about to start now, evidently.

Even as he emerged from the OR on Monday, Sanders was promoting his universal health-care policies.