Ginsburg “resting comfortably” after procedure at New York hospital

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent a “minimally invasive non-surgical procedure” on Wednesday at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York to “revise a bile duct stent that was originally placed at Sloan Kettering in August 2019,” the Supreme Court’s Public Information Office announced. Ginsburg’s doctors, the statement indicated, say that such procedures “are common occurrences”; this one, which was “performed using endoscopy and medical imaging guidance, was done to minimize the risk of future infection.” The 87-year-old Ginsburg “is resting comfortably and expects to be released from the hospital by the end of the week,” the statement concluded.

The announcement on Wednesday was the third one this month regarding Ginsburg’s health. On July 14, the court disclosed that Ginsburg was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for “treatment of a possible infection”; during that stay in the hospital, Ginsburg underwent an endoscopic procedure to clean out a bile duct stent. Three days later, on July 17, Ginsburg announced that she began chemotherapy in May to treat cancer that had been found on her liver. She would continue with bi-weekly chemotherapy, she said, and had been able to maintain “an active daily routine.” She emphasized that she had “often said I would remain a member of the Court as long as I can do the job full steam. I remain fully able to do that.”

The bile duct stent revised during Wednesday’s procedure was placed as part of Ginsburg’s treatment last year for a tumor on her pancreas. Ginsburg was treated for cancer three other times before last summer: She had surgery in December 2018 to remove cancerous growths from her lungs, had an earlier bout with pancreatic cancer in 2009 and was treated in 1999 for colon cancer. She also had heart surgery in 2014.

The justices are currently in their summer recess.

This post was originally published at Howe on the Court.