McGreevey Released from Hospital

TRENTON, N.J. – February 4, 2002 — He was going for romantic. Instead his evening turned traumatic. Gov. James E. McGreevey wanted a quiet walk on the beach with his wife before dinner at a Cape May inn Friday evening, but wound up in the local emergency room with a fractured leg.

"I was actually holding Dina's hand. It was a beautiful night," McGreevey told The Associated Press Monday. "I just went over on my ankle and literally fell down. I felt the bone break. I heard it break."

McGreevey left a New Brunswick hospital Monday afternoon, two days after his left thigh bone was surgically repaired. For the next eight weeks McGreevey will need to use crutches and be forced to spend time in physical therapy.

The governor held a staff meeting Monday at the hospital, where he worked on the state budget and prepared for a Feb. 11 address to the Legislature.

He planned to return home Monday and begin a public schedule sometime later in the week. Friday was McGreevey's first day off since he became governor Jan. 15. With their newborn in the care of a baby sitter, McGreevey ordered his own sitters – the ever-present state police bodyguards – away so the couple could be alone before dinner.

"I dismissed them. It was just an opportunity to be by ourselves, just to enjoy the walk," McGreevey said. "That was entirely my decision, my responsibility, my fault. We wanted to be by ourselves, a nice quiet dinner, particularly because the baby was with my mother in-law."

He fell when a sand ledge gave way under his feet.

Without police protection, Dina McGreevey dialed 911 on her cell phone.

"I told her don't say it's an emergency," McGreevey said. "She said, `What, you're going to wait until you're two feet out to tide?"'

Lying in the sand, McGreevey made a call of his own, alerting a senior staff member while he waited for local police and an ambulance.

"He asked if I was all right. I said yes, aside from the water lapping two feet from my right foot, some sand and a broken leg," McGreevey said.

At Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital in Cape May Court House, McGreevey had similar humor for the nurse who cut the governor's pants leg off.

"One of my favorite pairs of khakis," McGreevey said. "Can't we save these. I said, `These cost money."'

Later Friday night a helicopter took him to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. Doctors there used three screws to insert a titanium rod in his leg during a 90-minute operation early Saturday.

McGreevey spent most of Sunday walking around the hospital and talking with state officials and staff members who came to his fifth-floor room.

"I visited the pediatric oncology unit on Sunday and visited the children, really to understand what's important," McGreevey said.

The injury has forced McGreevey to alter his schedule. He canceled a town hall meeting in Camden on Tuesday night, and put off tentative plans to travel to the Dominican Republic within the next few weeks.

McGreevey said his staff was working to reschedule the Camden meeting, but no date was set.

The governor praised all those who cared for him, especially nurses at both hospitals.

"Extraordinary. But Rose owes me a pair of pants," he joked.

The governor, who rarely appears in public without wearing a conservative dark suit and striped tie, admitted the public might find it hard to believe he is one for nighttime walks on the beach.

"Now I'll be less of that kind of guy," McGreevey said. "The irony is I enjoy running and I enjoy running on the beach."

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Author: 6 ABC - AP