ARIZONA

'I'm getting better. Let's go!': Former US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords released from hospital

Arizona Republic

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords speaks, as her husband, Mark Kelly looks on, during the memorial dedication for Tucson's January 8th Memorial at El Presidio Park in Tucson on Jan. 8, 2018. The dedication was held on the seven-year anniversary of the Tucson-area mass shooting that left six people dead and 13 others injured, including Giffords. The memorial is expected to be completed within the next two years.

After a four-day stay, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., the wife of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., was released Saturday from a Tucson hospital, where she was treated for appendicitis, she said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Giffords had checked into the hospital Tuesday, prompting her husband to cut his workweek short on Capitol Hill to return to their hometown to be with her.

Appendicitis is typically treatable but Giffords’ condition while inside the hospital had been unknown publicly.

"I'm getting better — let's go," she said in a video posted on her Twitter account, which appeared to be shot from a hospital room.

"Eleven years ago, I left the hospital facing a lifetime of recovery," she wrote with her video. "Today, I'm leaving the hospital glad it's only appendicitis, and grateful for friends, family, my incredible medical team, and of course @CaptMarkKelly, who gives true meaning to 'in sickness and in health.'"

Kelly is expected to return to a busy schedule next week during the in-state work period, where he is set to appear alongside Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in several visits across metro Phoenix. The pair is expected to highlight how millions of dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help combat the western drought and support water infrastructure projects on tribal lands.

The senator is also expected to spend the week meeting with local leaders in Phoenix and southern Arizona.

During his absence in the evenly-divided Senate, Kelly missed votes on two Defense Department nominees that he had supported as well as on a short-term government funding bill to prevent a government shutdown hours before a deadline to do so.

Long before Kelly joined the Senate, Giffords served in Congress from 2007 to 2012. She resigned after she was shot in the head while meeting with constituents near Tucson in 2011. The mass shooting left six people dead and a dozen others injured.

Have news to share about Arizona politics? Reach the reporter on Twitter and Facebook. Contact her at yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic.com and 602-444-4712.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

Subscribe for free to The Gaggle political podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or wherever you listen to audio content.