Two days after a heart episode and fall that required hospital care, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania says he’s had “a full recovery” from the incident and has been released, according to a statement released on social media Saturday afternoon.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Fetterman said he required 20 stitches to repair damage from the fall he experienced Thursday morning while walking near his home in Braddock. In the post, which included a photograph showing cuts on his face, he said he was home with his family and “overwhelmed [and] profoundly grateful for all the well-wishes.”
20 stitches later and a full recovery, I’m back home with @giselefetterman and the kids.
I’m overwhelmed + profoundly grateful for all the well-wishes.
Truly.
Grateful for @UPMC for the incredible medical care that put me back together.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
See you back in DC. pic.twitter.com/j81LXZGLBx
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) November 15, 2025
The first-term senator and former Pennsylvania lieutenant governor also thanked the UPMC health care system for the care he received while in the hospital, concluding with “See you back in DC.”
Fetterman fell after experiencing an episode of ventricular fibrillation, according to a spokesperson for his office in a statement released Thursday afternoon. The “flareup” resulted in Fetterman “feeling light-headed, falling to the ground and hitting his face, with minor injuries,” according to the statement.
Ventricular fibrillation, or v-fib, is an abnormal heart rhythm that affects the heart’s ability to pump blood by making its lower chambers move quickly and randomly, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The hospital describes v-fib as a life-threatening condition requiring immediate medical care.
On Thursday, Fetterman’s office said he was “receiving routine observation at the hospital,” so doctors could “fine-tune his medication.” Other than Fetterman’s post Saturday, his office and staff have provided no additional details about his condition or prognosis.
But cardiologists on Friday told WESA that the heart health condition could have been deadly if it wasn’t immediately treated, and that his life was likely saved by an implant given to him after a stroke more than three years ago.
Dr. Justin Lee, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said that ventricular fibrillation, or v-fib, is a “dangerous heart rhythm” that causes a surge of electricity in the bottom chamber of the heart. If the person isn’t given a shock to fix their heart rhythm very soon after the incident, they will die, he said.
The heart “begins to quiver instead of pump. And when that happens, blood flow just stops, and a person can just collapse within seconds,” he said. “It is a main cause for sudden cardiac arrest, and the only way to fix it in the moment is an electrical shock to the heart.”
Fetterman likely received such a shock thanks to treatment he received after he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized during his campaign for Senate in May 2022. At that time, he said the stroke was caused by a clot from his heart during an episode of atrial fibrillation — a different and less immediately dangerous form of heart arrhythmia — two days earlier.
He later had surgery to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator to manage the condition.
Implanted defibrillator devices can be lifesaving for protecting people who are at high risk for v-fib, Lee noted, especially because v-fib can strike suddenly. The device monitors a person’s heart rhythm and administers a shock to it if the person goes into v-fib.
“Think of it like a sprinkler system attached to a fire alarm. It would detect a fire, and the sprinkler system would activate to put out the fire,” Lee said.
Without such immediate intervention, he warned, “the death rate from v-vib — we can think of it as 100 percent.
“It’s the rhythm of death. That’s why urgent defibrillation of ventricular fibrillation is very important.”
Lee said a fall like the one Fetterman’s office described would not be a surprising outcome in such a case: “Because there’s no blood flow, that would cause one to fall. And then the defibrillator would kick in so that the v-fib doesn’t progress any further.”
A v-fib incident most often occurs when arteries become blocked, Lee said. Other triggers, such as heart failure or genetic conditions, can also kick off a v-fib incident.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, an estimated 180,000 to 450,000 sudden cardiac deaths happen annually in the US. Of those, a significant portion may be because of v-fib or other kinds of ventricular arrhythmia.
And Lee said that even if heart patients are saved by a defibrillator, they should head to a hospital immediately after they experience v-fib to be examined for blockages, or require a check of the implanted device itself. Patients may also be at risk from an “electrical storm” in which their body goes into v-fib repeatedly, he said.
The need to respond to a v-fib event immediately is why automated external defibrillators, or AED devices, are placed in areas where large numbers of people gather, such as schools and airports.
