Justice Ginsburg is released from hospital after breaking three ribs in a fall
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Updated: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released from the hospital Friday morning after falling in her office on Wednesday and breaking three ribs.
Court spokesperson Kathy Arberg said Ginsburg was doing well and planned to work at home on Friday, USA Today reports.
Ginsburg fell Wednesday night in her court office, then went home, according to a press release. She went to George Washington University Hospital early Thursday morning after experiencing discomfort overnight. Tests showed that she fractured three ribs on her left side.
The 85-year-old justice was admitted to the hospital for observation and treatment. She was said to be working even while hospitalized.
On Thursday night at a premiere of a movie about her work as a young lawyer, On the Basis of Sex, Ginsburg’s nephew Daniel Stiepleman gave an update on the justice’s mood. “The last I heard she was up and working, of course, because what else would she be doing, and cracking jokes,” Stiepleman told Reuters. “I can’t promise they were good jokes but they were jokes.”
Stiepleman wrote the script for On the Basis of Sex, which centers around a 1972 gender discrimination case Ginsburg argued on behalf of a man who’d been denied a caregiver tax credit. The movie is being released at Christmas.
Publications with coverage of Ginsburg’s fall include the Hill, the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Ginsburg fans expressed support and concern on Twitter. “Is rib donation a thing? If it is, I volunteer,” wrote one supporter. Twitter users were tweeting at the hashtag #RibsForRuth, the Kansas City Star reports.
Ginsburg also broke two ribs in 2012 but did not miss work, according to the New York Times. Broken ribs usually heal in about six weeks, but the time can vary.
Ginsburg said in July she hopes to stay at least five more years on the Supreme Court. She has survived colon and pancreatic cancer. She also had heart stent surgery in 2014 to open a blockage in a coronary artery.
Ginsburg is known for her rigorous workout routine with a personal trainer. According to coverage from February 2017, Ginsburg bench presses 70 pounds on the weight machine and lifts 12 pounds when doing dumbbell curls. She also does 20 pushups—and not the kind done with knees on the ground.
Ginsburg’s accident did not delay a planned courtroom ceremony to officially welcome Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the court. President Donald Trump and the new acting attorney general, Mark Whitaker, attended the Kavanaugh ceremony, along with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the New York Times reports.
#SCOTUS press office says Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been admitted to GW Hospital this morning for "observation and treatment" after falling at her office last night, fracturing three ribs on her last side.
— Amy Howe (@AHoweBlogger) November 8, 2018
See also:
ABA Journal: “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has become an unlikely pop culture icon”
Updated at 9:29 a.m. to add detail about the Kavanaugh ceremony. Updated on Nov. 9 to add Ginsburg’s nephew’s comments and to link to coverage of the Kavanaugh ceremony. Updated on Nov. 9 to report that Ginsburg was released from the hospital.
