Protection Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III will endure a nonsurgical process on Friday night time to handle a bladder-related challenge, and through the hospitalization will briefly flip over duties to his deputy, the Pentagon mentioned on Friday.
“The secretary has decided he might be briefly unable to carry out his capabilities and duties through the process, so Deputy Secretary of Protection Kathleen Hicks will assume the capabilities and duties of the secretary of protection,” the Pentagon mentioned in an announcement.
Mr. Austin will endure “a scheduled, elective and minimally invasive follow-up” process at Walter Reed Nationwide Army Medical Middle, the assertion mentioned.
It’s the newest in a string of medical procedures for Mr. Austin in current months, and his preliminary secrecy surrounding them has drawn scrutiny to each him and the Pentagon.
Mr. Austin and Ms. Hicks carried out the identical short-term change of duties in early February when Mr. Austin underwent a nonsurgical process beneath normal anesthesia to handle a bladder challenge.
On Dec. 22, Mr. Austin underwent a prostatectomy, the removing of all or a part of the prostate gland, to deal with prostate most cancers. He was launched after the surgical procedure however returned a bit of over per week later with an an infection. He was put in intensive care, and medical doctors mentioned they drained extra belly fluid.
Mr. Austin was extensively criticized for failing to right away disclose his sickness and absence to the White Home, a breach of protocol that baffled officers throughout the federal government, together with on the Pentagon.
He remained hospitalized for 2 weeks in January and returned to the Pentagon on Jan. 29. However on Feb. 11, he was again within the hospital with persevering with bladder issues, which medical doctors have mentioned are usually not associated to Mr. Austin’s earlier most cancers prognosis. He was discharged two days later.
Since then, Mr. Austin has absolutely returned to his duties on the Pentagon and resumed touring abroad. On Friday morning, Mr. Austin gave the graduation handle to graduates on the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and returned to the Pentagon within the afternoon to fulfill with Kenya’s president, William Ruto.
The Pentagon introduced earlier on Friday that Mr. Austin would start a visit subsequent week to Singapore, Cambodia and France.
