Surgeon optimistic about recovery outlook for Scalise

He was at imminent risk of death, trauma director tells media.

U.S. Rep. WASHINGTON — Steve Scalise can hope to make an “excellent recovery,” his trauma surgeon said Friday, even though the lawmaker arrived at the hospital Wednesday at imminent risk of death after being shot at a congressional baseball practice.

In his first public comments since the shooting, Dr. Jack Sava of MedStar Washington Hospital Center said it’s a “good possibility” that the Louisiana Republican will be able to return to work in his full capacity.

Sava declined to put a timeline on when that would happen or when Scalise, 51, would be able to leave the hospital. The doctor described how a bullet from an assault rifle entered Scalise’s hip and traversed his pelvis, shattering blood vessels, bones and internal organs along the way.

For now, Scalise remains in critical condition in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Scalise, the No. 3 House Republican, arrived at the hospital via helicopter in shock, with intense internal bleeding and “an imminent risk of death,” Sava said.

Since then, the lawmaker has undergone multiple surgeries and procedures to stop the bleeding and repair bone. He has been sedated, but has been brought out of sedation periodically and been able to recognize and communicate with his family, Sava said.

Scalise has received multiple blood transfusions, which can affect clotting, something doctors will monitor closely. Infection also is a risk, especially if the intestines were perforated.

Scalise was wounded when a gunman opened fire at a GOP lawmaker baseball practice Wednesday morning. The fact that his injuries brought him close to death was not widely known initially.

Sava said Friday that there are hundreds of bullet fragments in Scalise’s body, but “we have no intention to try and remove all the bullet fragments at this point.”

Several other people were also injured in Wednesday’s shooting before Scalise’s security detail and other police officers gunned down the assailant, who later died. The shooter was an Illinois man, James Hodgkinson, who had lashed out against President Donald Trump and Republicans over social media.