CNN – by Jeremy DiamondWashington (CNN)Sen. Harry Reid didn’t head to work for his first day back as Senate minority leader, days after he suffered a bone-breaking fall.
Reid was working from home on Tuesday per doctors’ orders, and a picture from his Twitter account showed him meeting with his leadership team at his home in Washington on Tuesday morning. The No. 2 Senate Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois will assume Reid’s duties as minority leader on the Senate floor until he can return to the halls of Congress, Reid and Durbin’s spokesmen confirmed.
Reid suffered a concussion, broke three ribs and several bones in his face while exercising at his Nevada home late last week, Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said in a statement. Reid’s office had not previously disclosed that he suffered a concussion.
“As most people know I fought for a couple years. After any of those fights I never looked like I do now,” a bandaged Reid, who was an amateur boxer in his youth, said in a YouTube video.
Reid joked that he didn’t get his injuries from “sparring with Manny (Pacquiao)” or by “challenging Floyd Mayweather,” both professional boxers.
Reid explained that his doctors told him he “better take it easy,” but Reid confessed to feeling “some homesickness.”
But Reid didn’t offer as many details as his right-hand man in the Senate leadership. Durbin gave new details about Reid’s apparently very bloody accident, which happened while Reid was working out using exercise stretch bands.
“So, he was stretching these straps and one broke and tossed him like a slingshot against cabinets, built-in cabinets,” Durbin told reporters. “He crashed into it with his face and the side of his body.”
Despite the grisly accident, Durbin said Reid was “lucid, on his game” and “completely engaged” during the meeting on Tuesday.
“He’s made substantial progress in a short period of time,” Durbin said. “Of course, he’s been ordered by his doctor to rest and have as little exercise and exertion as possible until he has healed more.”
Reid’s spokesman said the senator has been “working every day” despite his injuries, meeting with his staff and other senators.
He’s also “spoken with President Obama multiple times since his injury and will continue to keep a busy schedule,” Jentleson added.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/06/politics/reid-working-from-home/index.html