Scalise still in rehab three months after congressional shooting

Three months after the congressional shooting, Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise continues recovering in a rehab facility with no word on when he will return to Capitol Hill.

The House Majority Whip nearly died June 14 after a lone gunman shot him in the hip during a baseball practice with fellow Republicans and staffers in Alexandria, Virginia. The team was preparing for a charity game against Democrats scheduled the following day when the shooter — a disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporter who despised President Donald Trump and the GOP — opened fire with a 7.62 mm caliber rifle, striking Scalise and four others. The gunman died  at a Washington, D.C. hospital after a shoot out with Scalise’s security detail and local law enforcement.

“We were like sitting ducks,” Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul told Fox News of the shooting. “Without the Capitol Hill police it would have been a massacre.”

Scalise was rushed to Medstar Washington Hospital Center in grave condition. For the next six weeks, he cycled in and out of the intensive care unit as he underwent multiple surgeries — the last of which cleared a deep tissue infection. He was discharged in July to an inpatient rehab facility where he has been relearning to walk, according to a report from the Advocate.

Some of Scalise’s colleagues told the Advocate the congressman hoped to return to work this month, but without a doctor’s approval, it doesn’t seem likely.

In the meantime, restaurants in his home city of New Orleans have been sending Scalise local favorites — including po-boys, stuffed artichokes, shrimp remoulade and oysters. — as he recovers nearly 1,100 miles away in the nation’s capitol.

“These weeks since the shooting are the longest Steve has ever been away, and he’s eager to get home as soon as his doctors say he’s able,” Scalise spokesman Chris Bond told the New Orleans Advocate last week. “But in the meantime, he’s blessed to know that friends and family are going to make sure he gets some good Louisiana cooking to fuel his healing and rehabilitation. He is a man whose heart is full of thanks, and this is one of many reasons for that.”

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