Republican North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer is recovering after suffering a concussion, seizure and brain bleeding as the result of smacking his head on ice.
Cramer, 64, said in a Facebook post that he slipped on ice at his home in Bismarck on Sunday, then fell and hit his head, which knocked him unconsciousness.
“While walking on the hill down to the dock, I stepped on ice and evidently fell hard, hitting the back of my head,” he wrote. “I do not remember anything from the fall until arriving at Sanford Health emergency room.”
After undergoing numerous tests and a CT scan, the senator said he was “diagnosed with a severe concussion, a seizure and a slight brain bleed.” His injuries required staples to keep the wounds from “oozing” out.
His Facebook post included a photo of blood smeared on snow and another of two staples in his laceration.
Cramer said on Tuesday that he was taking anti-seizure medication and that his “head still hurts a bit.” His doctors have told him to rest a while longer before returning to work in Washington, D.C.
“I do not know exactly when that will happen,” he said. “It will be day-to-day this week, but I am ready to return quickly if events require it.”
Earlier this month, Sen. Mitch McConnell fell twice in the Capitol and left the building in a wheelchair.
Cramer has served as a senator for North Dakota since 2019, and was reelected in November. Nearly two months later, his adult son Ian Cramer was sentenced to 28 years in prison for a car crash that killed a sheriff’s deputy after he fled from a hospital where he’d been taken for mental health concerns.