Paul LePage is out of the hospital and resting in the Blaine House

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage was back in the Blaine House on Monday after being hospitalized over the weekend, but the details of LePage’s illness or injuries were not being disclosed to the public.

In a short statement Monday, Peter Steele, LePage’s communication director, said LePage had been discharged from Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and was back at the governor’s residence in Augusta.

“Governor LePage is back in the Blaine House today, resting and getting ready to return to work in the next couple of days. He and his family thank everyone for their concerns and well wishes,” Steele wrote in an email to the press.

In a previous press release issued Sunday, LePage’s office said only that the governor had been transferred from a hospital in Presque Isle to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor Saturday because he was experiencing “discomfort.”

The weekend statement did not include any details about the governor’s discomfort or condition, and Steele offered no additional information Monday.

James Cyr, the communications director for Republican state Senate President Michael Thibodeau, said Monday that Thibodeau’s office was advised LePage had been hospitalized on Saturday.

Under Maine’s constitution, the Senate President, becomes acting governor if the governor dies in office or is incapacitated and unable to perform his duties. Cyr said the notice Saturday was unusual, as LePage’s staff had not contacted Thibodeau’s office when LePage was previously hospitalized for brief periods.

Steele, in his statement Sunday, said LePage was transported from a hospital in New Brunswick, Canada to Presque Isle and then taken to EMMC at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday night.

From there, LePage was transported to Bangor and admitted to EMMC around 11:30 p.m.

“Doctors said he is very strong and healthy,” Steele said in Sunday’s statement. “But they are keeping him in the hospital overnight for further observation. The governor is stable and is expected to make a full recovery.”

Other State House officials, who spoke on background, said LePage was being treated at the Bangor hospital’s cardiac unit. The hospital has a special unit that focuses on cardiac patients.

Since being elected in 2010, the 69-year-old Republican governor has experienced at least two significant challenges to his health that have been made public. Despite being one of the state’s most prominent public officials, LePage in both instances agreed to disclose details only several months later.

In January 2017, LePage told a radio talk show host that his dramatic weight loss was the result of bariatric surgery that he underwent in September 2016 at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

At the time, LePage’s staff expressed reluctance in talking about the governor’s health.

“We do not comment on the governor’s personal medical care,” Steele wrote in an email to the Press Herald. “If he chooses to talk about it publicly, that is his decision.”

In a radio interview LePage said that he decided to undergo the procedure after the doctor told him he risked developing diabetes if he did not lose weight.

In May of this year, LePage revealed during the Maine International Trade Day in Rockport that he was struck by a motor vehicle while riding his bicycle in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Nov, 22, 2017. He and his wife own a home in nearby Ormond Beach. LePage said the impact cracked his bicycle helmet into two pieces and “sent me flying 40 feet.”

He said he was struck by a young woman after she cut him off while making a turn. The crash exacerbated a shoulder injury and required surgery. In the weeks following LePage was seen frequently wearing a sling to support his arm on the injured shoulder.

“Without a helmet, I wouldn’t be here,” the governor said.

Lawmakers Monday were expressing wishes for a speedy recovery for LePage, but some took the opportunity to note LePage’s opposition to expanding Medicaid coverage based on a ballot question passed by voters last November.

“I want to wish Gov. LePage a full and speedy recovery,” state Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, wrote in a message on Facebook. “Our health means everything, and it is a great to have access to affordable health care whether in Canada or in Maine. I hope that soon we will honor that right for everyone, and like most other developed nations, pay less for prevention instead of paying more for profits and treatment.”

LePage’s top political adviser, Brent Littlefield, said Monday he wasn’t authorized to discuss any details of LePage’s health or what caused him to be hospitalized Saturday night.

This story will be updated.