WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin returned to work at the Pentagon on Monday after nearly a month’s absence because of prostate cancer and was meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“At this important time, I’m glad to be back at the Pentagon,” said Austin, speaking at the start of the meeting. “I feel good and recovering well, but still recovering, and I appreciate all the good wishes that I have received thus far.”
Austin was last in the Pentagon on Dec. 21. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier in December, and he went to a hospital for a surgical procedure for the cancer on Dec. 22. He worked the following week from home.
On Jan. 1, he was taken by ambulance to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after experiencing extreme pain and was admitted to the intensive care unit. He stayed there for two weeks but didn’t inform the White House or his deputy that he had cancer, had surgery or had been taken back to the hospital and put in intensive care until days later. He told President Joe Biden and other key leaders about his diagnosis only after he’d been in the hospital more than a week.
Austin’s lack of disclosure has prompted changes in federal guidelines and has triggered an internal Pentagon review and an inspector general review into his department’s notification procedures. Both reviews are ongoing.
Austin has been working from home since he got out of the hospital…
