John McCain's recovery could take longer than we think
John McCain. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
John McCain's recovery could take longer than initially expected, medical experts told The New York Times on Sunday, two days after the Arizona senator underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye.
McCain's office suggested in a statement last week that the senator would be out for a week recovering in Arizona. But two neurosurgeons told The Times that the typical recovery time for such a procedure was "a few weeks" or more.
That's bad news for Senate Republicans, who are delaying a vote on their healthcare bill until McCain returns to Washington. Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have already said they will not vote to proceed on the measure, meaning that Republicans need McCain to have a chance at reaching the necessary 50-vote threshold.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had hoped to hold a procedural vote on the bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, next week.
"While John is recovering, the Senate will continue our work on legislative items and nominations, and will defer consideration of the Better Care Act," McConnell said in a statement on Saturday.
McCain's office has not disclosed any further information about the surgery since it was announced, and surgeons at the hospital are not granting interviews, leading to speculation over how doctors discovered the blood clot. According to one of the neurosurgeons interviewed by The Times, the type of blood clot McCain had is usually discovered when the patient has symptoms and not as the result of a routine physical as McCain's office said.
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