Senator Fetterman released from Walter Reed

By Brian Rokus and Kannita Iyer | CNN

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has been fired from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he was being treated for depression, his office said Friday.

He will return to the Senate when he returns from vacation on April 17, his office said in a press release, confirming previous reports from CNN.

“I’m so happy to be home,” the freshman Democrat said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to be the father and husband I want to be, and the senator from Pennsylvania deserves. Pennsylvanians have always had my back, and I will always have theirs.

Fetterman checked himself in last month “to receive treatment for clinical depression,” his chief of staff said at the time. A source familiar with the matter previously told CNN that while Fetterman was not suicidal, his symptoms of depression included weight loss and loss of appetite.

“I want everyone to know that depression is treatable and that treatment works,” Fetterman added in the statement after its release. “It’s not about politics – right now there are people suffering from depression in red counties and blue counties.

“If you need help, please get help,” he said.

Fetterman, the 53-year-old freshman who helped cement the Democrats’ 51-49 majority in the Senate last fall, suffered a stroke last year in the days leading up to the primary. And when he returned to the campaign trail, Fetterman often struggled to communicate with persistent auditory processing issues, relying on assistance via closed-captioned devices in order to have conversations properly and to answer questions.

The same auditory processing issues plagued him in his early days in the Senate. And when he battled substantial weight loss and loss of appetite, he was diagnosed with clinical depression and then turned to Walter Reed for treatment.

Fetterman has experienced depression “on and off” over the course of his life, according to an earlier statement from the senator’s chief of staff.