What you need to know
Sen. John Fetterman is sharing a health update, including graphic photos of his injuries, two days after being hospitalized for a heart-related fall near his home in Pennsylvania.
Fetterman, 56, shared the update in a post on X on Saturday, Nov. 15, writing, “After 20 stitches and a full recovery, I’m home with @giselefetterman and the kids. I’m overwhelmed and deeply grateful for all the well wishes. So much.”
She added, “Thank you @UPMC for the amazing medical care that got me back on my feet. Thank you so much.”
“See you in Washington, D.C.,” he wrote at the end of the message, along with a photo of himself holding an iced coffee, which shows him having stitches on his forehead and the inside of his nose.
The senator was hospitalized in the early morning hours of Thursday, November 13, after falling while walking near his home in Braddock, Pennsylvania.
“Out of an abundance of caution, he was transported to a hospital in Pittsburgh,” his spokesperson said in a statement published in X later that day. “Examinations revealed that the ventricular fibrillation had returned and Sen. Fetterman felt dizzy and fell to the ground, hitting his face and sustaining minor injuries.”
Ventricular fibrillation is an irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, and “ventricular fibrillation is an emergency requiring immediate medical attention and is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
A spokesperson for Mr. Fetterman added, “He is feeling well and is undergoing regular observation at the hospital. He has decided to remain so that his doctors can fine-tune his medication regimen. Sen. Fetterman is grateful to the paramedics, doctors, and nurses who provided his care.”
In a message from the senator included in the press secretary’s statement, Fetterman joked, “If you thought I looked bad before, wait until you see it now!”
Andrew Harnik/Getty
Prior to his Nov. 13 fall, Fetterman revealed that he had suffered a stroke while on the campaign trail in May 2022 and was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, which affects the upper two chambers of the heart, in May of the same year. Ventricular fibrillation, which his spokesperson mentioned after Fetterman’s recent hospitalization, affects the lower two chambers.
In February 2023, Fetterman was hospitalized overnight after feeling lightheaded. At the time, his spokesperson said: “Initial tests showed no evidence of a new stroke, but doctors are carrying out further tests and John will remain overnight for observation.”
Just weeks after being hospitalized in February, Fetterman checked into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for clinical depression.
Speaking to PEOPLE in April 2023 after returning from a 44-day hospital stay, Fetterman said he was “in full swing with depression” when he arrived at the Capitol as a freshman senator and urged others to seek help like he had.
“I don’t care if you’re a liberal or a conservative, a Republican or a Democrat. We can all be depressed. And we can all be healthier,” he tells PEOPLE. “Go to the doctor, or go to someone who can. Help with the symptoms of depression. I was skeptical that it would make anything better, but it did. It did. I’m very grateful.”
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Some of Mr. Fetterman’s current and former employees expressed concern about the senator’s safety in a May 2025 New York magazine feature, including a quote from his former chief of staff, Adam Jentleson.
In an email obtained by the outlet, Jentleson told Fetterman’s doctor that “the red flags we have discussed are common.” “Conspiratorial thinking, delusions of grandeur…highs and lows, long, rambling, repetitive, self-centered monologues, lies that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room.”
“Part of the tragedy here is that this is the person who could lead the Democratic Party out of the wilderness,” Jentleson said. “But I also think he’s struggling in ways that he shouldn’t hide from the world.”
After the article was published, Fetterman described it in an interview with CNN as a “hit piece” that featured interviews from “disgruntled staffers.”
“My doctors say, ‘John is amazing,'” Fuhrman said at the time, telling the outlet that the discussion of his medical information was “incredibly invasive.”
