John Murtha was re-admitted to the hospital after undergoing gall bladder surgery. Murtha in stable condition

Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha is in stable condition in the intensive care unit of a Virginia hospital because of a serious complications related to gall bladder surgery last week.

The 77-year-old Democrat underwent scheduled laparoscopic surgery to remove his gallbladder at Bethesda Naval Hospital last Thursday but then, after his release, sought care at the Virginia Hospital Center over the weekend.


The congressman’s spokesman declined to say Tuesday what led him to be hospitalized again. But responding to questions Wednesday, he said that Murtha was in stable condition. Two persons said it appeared Murtha’s intestine had been cut inadvertently during the gall bladder removal.

The Hospital Center, located in Arlington, confirmed that Murtha was a patient in its intensive care unit but referred all questions about his condition to his family.

A powerhouse in the House Appropriations Committee and close friend of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D—Cal.), Murtha was hospitalized for in December as well when he suffered an infection in his gall bladder. The doctors then decided that it should be removed once the infection had been tempered, and that set up the surgery last week at Bethesda.

In the interim, Murtha has been back in the Capitol and active in the House.

In his familiar style, he returned quickly from Bethesda in December—with IV bandages still on him—so as to oversee passage of his defense appropriations bill. Last week, prior to the surgery, he was voting on the House floor, meeting on Haiti relief, and laying the groundwork for handing the administration’s new request for war funding related to the war in Afghanistan.

Details of that request were spelled out in President Barack Obama’s budget Monday and include a footnote of sorts to Murtha’s own career. Along with funds for the Defense and State Departments, the White House confirmed it will also be asking for $13.4 billion to pay veterans claims arising from the use of the herbicide Agent Orange in the Vietnam War—where Murtha served as a Marine.



Pelosi, who spoke with Murtha’s chief-of-staff John Hugya, said Tuesday evening that her sense was the medical situation was under control, but that the chairman faced a long recovery that could keep him sidelined until after the President’s Day recess.

“I think it will be a few weeks before he is back,” the speaker old POLITICO. “It’s serious that he needs to recover…. We’re praying that he is comfortable. We know he will get up.”