Senator Harry Reid hospitalised after work-out injury

US Senate Majority leader broke ribs and facial bones

Harry Reid (Reuters)

Outgoing US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid broke ribs and facial bones when a piece of exercise equipment malfunctioned during a workout at his Henderson, Nevada, home, his office said in a statement on Friday.

Mr Reid, a Democrat, was taken to a hospital in Henderson by his security detail for treatment after being injured on Thursday. He was later transferred to the University Medical Center in nearby Las Vegas for further testing and kept overnight as a precaution.

“A piece of equipment Senator Reid was using to exercise broke, causing him to fall and break a number of ribs and bones in his face,” the statement from Mr Reid’s office said.

Mr Reid’s spokesman Kristen Orthman told the Las Vegas Sun that the 75-year-old senator was using a resistance band, an elastic band used for strength training, that snapped and hit him in the face. Another aide, Adam Jentleson, told the newspaper Mr Reid broke bones near his right eye and several ribs when he fell.

Jentleson said Mr Reid was expected to leave the hospital on Friday and probably would have severe facial bruises.

His doctors expect him to make a full recovery, however, and Mr Reid plans to return to Washington this weekend, according to the statement, ahead of the convening of the 114th Congress on Tuesday.

Mr Reid, a former amateur boxer, was elected to the Senate in 1986 and became majority leader in 2007. He will surrender that position to Mitch McConnell in the new Congress as a result of November's elections.

Associated Press