Vice President Joe Biden says his son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, has had a successful medical procedure in Texas, where he was being evaluated at a cancer center.
Biden and his wife, Jill, say their son is in great shape. They say he will be discharged from the hospital on Thursday and will return home. They say Beau Biden's local doctors will follow up in Delaware.
“Yesterday our son Beau underwent a successful procedure. He is in great shape and is going to be discharged tomorrow and heading home to Delaware. He will follow up with his local physicians in the coming weeks,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
There was no immediate word of what type of procedure was performed.
The vice president is also expected to return to the area tomorrow for a meeting in Wilmington that will focus on combating violent crime in the City of Wilmington and New Castle.
Authorities say emergency responders were called earlier this month to a home where Beau Biden had been living, two weeks before being hospitalized.
An official with the Cranston Heights Fire Co. said Wednesday that the department received a call for help from Biden's home on Aug. 1. Beau Biden has been living at the home while a house he bought is being renovated.
Rickie Clark, a supervisor for the fire department, said the call for help was in reference to someone possibly having a stroke.
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Biden arrived on Monday in Houston for tests at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center after becoming weak and disoriented while vacationing in Indiana last week.
The Vice President canceled an event Thursday in Rhode Island to remain in Houston while his son wabeing evaluated at a Texas cancer center.
Biden was scheduled to headline a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at the home of Alison and Bill Vareika, which has been canceled.
The White House hasn't said whether Biden's other events this week have also been canceled. Biden was to attend a fundraiser in New Hampshire and an event at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island Thursday, and join President Barack Obama in Pennsylvania at a Friday event. Salve Regina University says the event there may also be canceled.
NBC10 News medical correspondent Nancy Snyderman said that sources familiar with Biden's condition said that a biopsy would be conducted and that it could take days for the pathology to be studied under a microscope.
A mass isn't necessarily cancerous and can be anything ranging from an aneurysm to a hemorrhage to something else.
Biden's health concerns began last week while on a family vacation. He was admitted to Northwestern University Hospital last Wednesday after feeling weak and disoriented while driving with his family to Indiana. He then traveled to Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia on Thursday to consult with his doctor. He was then discharged and spent the weekend at home in Wilmington, Del.
Agency spokesman Jason Miller said late Monday that Biden, the son of Vice President Joe Biden, traveled to MD Anderson Cancer Center, a cancer treatment hospital in Houston, to investigate the cause of his symptoms. According to NBC News Chief Medical Editor Nancy Snyderman, Biden will most likely after the biopsy be observed by doctors for any possible bleeding or any signs of a stroke.
Biden suffered a mild stroke in 2010. Biden became Delaware's attorney general in 2007. He is also an army national guardsman who was deployed to Iraq in 2008.
"Typically one-quarter of those stroke patients have had symptoms before," Snyderman said on NBC Nightly News. "We do know that since his stroke, Beau Biden has had several episodes in the past."
The White House says the Vice President Biden, who had been at his home in Delaware for the past several days, accompanied his son to Houston. There was no word on how long Biden would remain in Texas.
Beau Biden and his family ate at D'amico Italian Market Cafe in Houston Monday night. According to the owner, he appeared upbeat and healthy.
