JOHNSON UPDATE

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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

More than two months after suffering a brain hemorrhage, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) has left a Washington hospital and entered a private rehabilitation facility, his office said yesterday.

A spokeswoman refused to say whether the senator remained in Washington or was moved to a facility in South Dakota, citing family concerns about media scrutiny.

The Democrat's Dec. 13 brain hemorrhage and subsequent surgery highlighted his party's tenuous one-seat advantage in the Senate.

Johnson will continue to undergo physical, occupational and speech therapy at the private facility. Philip Marion, chief of rehabilitation at George Washington University Hospital, where Johnson had been treated, said in a statement released by Johnson's office that the senator has made "great progress" and that a final test showed no evidence that the tangle of veins and arteries that triggered the senator's hemorrhage remains.

Johnson's office has said his recovery is expected to take several months, though he has been doing some work from his bed.

-- Associated Press