Norcross out of intensive care unit, his office says

Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden)’s health is moving in a positive direction, his office said today, allowing him to be transferred out of the intensive care unit he’s been in for two weeks following a gallbladder infection. A full recovery and return to Washington, though, may still be a number of weeks away, according to his office.

“Congressman Norcross’ health has continued to improve and he was transferred out of the Intensive Care Unit on Friday,” the congressman’s office said in a statement. “He has been successfully treated for his infection and has completed his course of antibiotics. The Congressman is on his way to making a full recovery.”

On the weekend of April 5, Norcross experienced an emergency medical event while flying to New Jersey, forcing his plane to divert to North Carolina; he was hospitalized there briefly before being transferred to New Jersey’s Cooper University hospital on April 7. Last week, the congressman’s doctor revealed that he had developed a gallbladder infection called cholangitis that had progressed to sepsis, a serious condition.

Norcross’s office has consistently maintained that the congressman is on the road to recovery, and today’s news of his release from the intensive care unit is the clearest sign yet in that direction.

What remains less clear, though, is how long it will be until Norcross is out of the hospital and able to return to his regular duties in Washington; his doctors may make a determination on the timeline for his release in the coming days.

“As previously announced, he had a serious illness and will need an extended recovery that could take some weeks,” his office said in response to a follow-up question on a recovery timeline.

Shortly after Norcross was hospitalized, the House took a number of critical votes on a Republican-authored budget resolution, at one point clearing a key procedural vote by a 216-215 margin. Had Norcross been there (or had two other Democratic congressmen not died in recent months), it’s possible that Democrats could have halted the Republican effort in its tracks.

Congress has been on recess for all of last week and this week, but it will return next week to begin hashing out a major tax and spending bill. That will once again put the pressure on Democrats, who are only a few seats short of a majority, to put forward as much of a united front as they can – and the longer Norcross remains out of Washington, the more challenging their math becomes.

This story was updated at 12:43 p.m. with more details from Norcross’s office about his recovery timeline.