By Anne Steele, News Staff
Mayor Thomas M. Menino was transferred to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital on Monday after staying more than five weeks in an acute-care facility at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for a host of ailments.
“We are happy to announce the mayor is being transferred to rehabilitation today to begin the next phase of his recovery and is excited to start working with a new care team to help him get back to where he was before this whole incident started,” Brigham and Women’s Dr. Charles Morris announced during a press conference Monday.
Morris said Menino had been diagnosed with early stage Type 2 Diabetes, complicating his recovery.
The mayor was admitted Oct. 26 feeling malaise and was immediately diagnosed with a viral infection. Doctors then found a blood clot in his lung for which they started him on appropriate therapy, Morris said. Shortly thereafter he developed some low back pain, due to a compression fracture in his lower spine, where his doctors now remain focused.
John Tobin, Northeastern’s vice president for city and community affairs, said the mayor’s hospitalization has not affected communication with the university.
“He has built a wide network of people who run the day-to-day operation of the city like a top,” he said. “I have no doubt that his hospital room is or his rehab room at the Spaulding have become mini city halls. There is nothing that happens in the city that the mayor doesn’t know about. It’s an amazing, amazing skill. He has unbelievable political skill and people antennae unlike any other elected official I’ve seen.”
Tobin did add, however, that it’s unusual not to see the mayor around the city.
Menino was slated as the keynote speaker at a Student Government Association meeting he was unable to attend a couple of weeks ago, and Tobin said once he’s back on his feet they will reschedule.
As far as the Institutional Master Plan, Tobin said “it’s business as usual.”
“We’re in constant communication with the mayor’s office and nothing has skipped a beat,” Tobin said, adding, “We’re eager to see him out there in the city again. The city’s not the same without him.”
