What we know about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization

CNN —

A statement from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday revealed after days of uncertainty that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been treated at the hospital in December for prostate cancer and later readmitted due to complications.

The revelation came days after the Pentagon announced that Austin had been in the hospital since New Year’s Day – a surprise announcement late Friday that shocked both the Pentagon press corps and the national security establishment.

CNN’s reporting, the statement provided by doctors at Walter Reed and further disclosures from the Pentagon have shed some light on the circumstances around the secretary’s hospitalization — and why it took so long for senior officials to be informed.

The timeline

On December 22, Austin “underwent a minimally invasive surgical procedure called a prostatectomy to treat and cure prostate cancer” that been discovered in “early December,” according to a Tuesday statement from Dr. John Maddox, trauma medical director, and Dr. Gregory Chesnut, Center for Prostate Disease Research of the Murtha Cancer Center Director, at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Austin “was under general anesthesia during this procedure” and he “recovered uneventfully from his surgery and returned home the next morning,” according to the statement. The doctors said that Austin’s “prostate cancer was detected early, and his prognosis is excellent.”

It was previously unclear whether Austin had been under anesthesia during the procedure or what he was being treated for. Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said over the weekend that Austin went into the hospital for an elective procedure on December 22 when he was on leave, went home the