Name: Bay Area Rep. Mark DeSaulnier’s near-death ordeal: 4 weeks on ventilator
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Bay Area Rep. Mark DeSaulnier’s near-death ordeal: 4 weeks on ventilator

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WASHINGTON — Concord Rep. Mark DeSaulnier is getting back to work in Congress as he recovers from a near-death experience that hospitalized him for weeks, the Democrat revealed in posted late Monday.A visibly and audibly weakened DeSaulnier detailed the ordeal in depth for his constituents in his first public remarks since March, when he contracted pneumonia unrelated to the coronavirus after a bad fall he took while running.The longtime East Bay politician noted that while he was hospitalized, Congress and the rest of the world underwent a transformation into the age of COVID-19. He said he would be resuming his work on committees and in town halls with constituents in a largely virtual capacity.The medical issues began March 4, when the 23-time marathoner went for a run around the National Mall as training for a possible race with one of his two adult sons. DeSaulnier was crossing a street when the light began to change.“My adrenaline was running and I sort of kicked it in to get through the intersection, and I took a fall,” he said.He noted that most of the time for runners, such a tumble mostly results in damage to “your ego.” This time, however, DeSaulnier said he was holding his cell phone in one hand and tucked his arm, causing him to land on his side.DeSaulnier, 68, broke multiple ribs and damaged his spleen, and his doctor prescribed pain medication and recommended resting at home. But due to a combination of his age and his weakened immune system , he said, he developed pneumonia.More for youOn March 13, he was taken by ambulance to an area hospital.“The infection was choking me, drowning me,” DeSaulnier said.He would spend , including four weeks on a ventilator. At one point, he said, doctors gave him just a 10% chance of survival.One night, doctors called his sons and told them his organs were breaking down and there was “little they could do,” but wanted to attempt “a dated medical procedure” that could relieve the pressure, DeSaulnier said.“The next day, my sons, expecting a phone call from the hospital saying I had passed away in the night, instead get a phone call that I was a little bit better,” DeSaulnier said. “Every day I got better. There were lots of challenges, (but) eventually my eyes opened.”DeSaulnier spent two weeks in rehabilitation to work on his strength, speech and cognitive skills. He is still recovering, he said, and his voice is raspy because of damage from a tracheotomy.But he said he is going back to work in Congress, including his four committee assignments, and will run for a fourth term this fall. DeSaulnier won the March primary with 68% of the vote and will face Republican Nisha Sharma in November.About Our NewsroomDeSaulnier was already in remission for chronic lymphocytic leukemia when he began his ordeal. Surviving cancer “was amazing enough,” he said, growing emotional, “but I am so grateful every day for every breath, every day, and the people I love and care for.”He said that as he re-enters daily life, he is wearing a mask and following social distancing because he would be very susceptible to the coronavirus, and encouraged others to do the same.DeSaulnier, noting that he was recording his talk on Memorial Day, reflected on Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the relevance of its message in the nation’s current crisis.Lincoln, whose memorial DeSaulnier visited on that fateful run, said Americans must dedicate themselves in honor of the fallen to ensure “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”DeSaulnier pledged to follow that commitment.“For reasons I cannot explain, we are at one of those moments, maybe not as serious as Gettysburg, but equally as threatening,” DeSaulnier said. “It’s up to us, the living in 2020, and our kids, to rededicate ourselves to shared sacrifice and individual sacrifice, to make sure this country continues (its) success, and with all its shortcomings continues to try, as Lincoln also said, to become a more perfect union.”Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington correspondent. Email: Twitter:About Our Newsroom

WASHINGTON — Concord Rep. Mark DeSaulnier is getting back to work in Congress as he recovers from a near-death experience that hospitalized him for weeks, the Democrat revealed in posted late Monday.A visibly and audibly weakened DeSaulnier detailed the ordeal in depth for his constituents in his first public remarks since March, when he contracted pneumonia unrelated to the coronavirus after a bad fall he took while running.The longtime East Bay politician noted that while he was hospitalized, Congress and the rest of the world underwent a transformation into the age of COVID-19. He said...

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Bay Area Rep. Mark DeSaulnier’s near-death ordeal: 4 weeks on ventilator

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