Injured Senator Expects Full Recovery

WASHINGTON — Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Thursday he expects to make a full recovery from the surgery that relieved symptoms he had been suffering as a result of a fall while running a 50-mile race in November.

“I frankly think this is a little medical blip,” Baucus told reporters. “We all get them at one time or another. This is mine. I fully expect 100% ... recovery within a matter of weeks. That’s what the docs say, and that’s how it feels.”

The 62-year-old senator underwent surgery Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was released and returned to Washington this week.

Baucus injured his head when he fell on a rocky stretch of trail during the Nov. 22 race in Maryland. “I think I tried to pass somebody and I stumbled on a rock, fell down and my head hit a rock,” he said.

The symptoms Baucus suffered later were caused by fluid building up on the outside of his brain, a condition known as a subdural hematoma. Doctors Friday drilled two small holes in Baucus’ skull to relieve the resulting pressure.

He has qualified to run in a California 100-mile race, the Western States Endurance Run, in late June, and said he is not ruling it out.