Doctors for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he had been hospitalized over complications from prostate-cancer surgery, shedding new light on health concerns that the White House acknowledged it didn’t fully know about until Tuesday.
A routine screening in early December revealed Austin had prostate cancer and doctors put him under general anesthesia for a prostatectomy later in the month. After he was released, he suffered an infection and fluids collected in his abdomen, obstructing his intestines, the doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said in a statement.
The information about Austin’s health was released in response to growing frustration that the defense secretary, 70, had not been forthcoming about his health after he was admitted to intensive care for “severe pain” on Jan. 1. He didn’t tell the White House for several days that he’d been hospitalized, provoking consternation from President Joe Biden’s top aides.
Austin waited even longer to tell Biden why he’d been hospitalized. On Tuesday, the White House said Austin only informed the White House that he had cancer that morning.
“We all recognize this didn’t unfold the way it should have — on so many levels,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Austin, who has a reputation for closely guarding his privacy, acknowledged early on that he could have done a better job informing the public about his health issues, and said he took responsibility for the way it was handled.
The statement Tuesday appeared to do little to mollify the chorus of lawmakers who have demanded more transparency from the Pentagon and questioned how the White House failed to notice he was absent for several days. Some lawmakers including Representative Elise Stefanik, the New York Republican, have called for him to resign.
“The failure to notify Congress of his inability to perform his duties was a clear violation of the law,” Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “It remains unclear who decided to ignore federal law but there must be accountability.”
Earlier Tuesday, the White House announced a review of protocols around Cabinet secretaries who are unreachable or incapacitated. Chief of Staff Jeff Zients sent a memo to all Cabinet members ordering them to notify the White House if they’re forced to delegate authority.
The order said Cabinet members should notify the White House “when agencies anticipate or are preparing for a delegation of authority and again when the delegation occurs.”
Wicker’s statement called that review inadequate. Even so, Biden retains confidence in Austin and doesn’t want him to resign, the White House said. Kirby cited Austin’s work helping manage issues including the Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war.
Prostate cancer is among the most common tumors, affecting 13 of 100 American men during their lifetimes. Black men are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with the disease as white men, and their death rates are more than twice as high. It’s sometimes a slow-growing cancer, and in these cases doctors often wait to see how dangerous it becomes before starting aggressive treatment.
The Pentagon said Jan. 5 that Austin’s procedure was elective, meaning that treatment was chosen by the patient. More than 95% of patients survive prostate cancer for 5 years or more after diagnosis, although those in the later stages of the disease have dimmer survival prospects.
“He has progressed steadily throughout his stay,” the doctors at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said in the statement. “His infection has cleared. He continues to make progress and we anticipate a full recovery although this can be a slow process.”
In a statement later Tuesday, Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Pat Ryder said Austin is performing his duties from the hospital, adding that it wasn’t clear when Austin would be released. Asked why the Pentagon had been so secretive about the issue, Ryder said it was because the matter was “deeply personal” for the secretary.
Austin’s hospitalization briefly raised alarms about who was in charge of the world’s most powerful military and whether protocols on such notifications were violated. When his hospitalization was disclosed, the Pentagon said Austin had transferred authority to his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, and there had been no break in the chain of command.
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