Senator Fetterman, a Democrat who won his first term last year while recovering from a stroke, had checked himself into the Walter Reed Medical Center earlier this month.
Giselle Barreto Fetterman, Senator Fetterman's wife, recently stated that the family's decision to take an impromptu trip to Canada was due to the media attention surrounding her husband's illness. "We talked about lots of hard things, and how we will all have to face hard things. About the need to be gentle, with all and with ourselves," Mrs. Fetterman said.
February 27, 2023
"We did some scary things, but we did them together. We ziplined over Niagara Falls and [our son] August got stuck. We talked about flexibility and the need to always have an open heart and an open mind. We also talked about how joy and fun can and must still exist, even when someone we love is in pain. And tomorrow? Who knows. Will try all over again."
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According to aides, Senator Fetterman may remain in the hospital for weeks, as his depression may have been exacerbated by "negative experiences" during his election campaign. During the election, the senator faced a barrage of attacks from Republican politicians and pundits, who claimed that his stroke had left him without the mental fitness to hold public office.
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While Senator Fetterman's primary care doctor has stated that he has no actual "cognitive deficits," he does suffer from auditory processing problems that make it difficult for him to understand other people's speech without captions.
The controversy surrounding Senator Fetterman continued after his election victory, with conservatives accusing him of deceiving voters about the extent of his illness. In contrast, disability advocates argue that he was being unfairly stigmatized for needing accommodations that are often required by law in US workplaces.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), up to 26 percent of American adults have some kind of disability, with 11 percent experiencing serious difficulties with concentration or memory and 6 percent having serious hearing problems. Furthermore, an estimated 9.5 percent of American adults suffer from depression or similar conditions, such as bipolar disorder, each year, and experts have noted that depression is relatively common after a stroke.
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