Staffer collapses on Senate floor

A Senate staffer appeared to collapse on the Senate floor on Monday afternoon, just minutes after the upper chamber kicked off its work for the week. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was in the middle of a speech on Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, when a stenographer standing in front of his desk collapsed and hit her head. 

McConnell could be overheard saying “oh, my goodness” before he recessed the Senate for roughly 15 minutes as other floor staffers huddled around the woman. 

{mosads}Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who was on the Senate floor when the staffer collapsed, stood nearby as the Senate’s attending physician came onto the floor to check the woman’s pulse and blood pressure. 

Tourists and reporters were temporarily removed from the Senate galleries that overlook the Senate floor. When reporters were allowed back into the gallery, the woman had been moved out of the chamber.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) praised the work of the Senate stenographers once the chamber came back into session. 

“First, let me thank the attending physician for quickly coming to the aid of one of our stenographers. They all do an amazing job. They are the unsung heroes and we wish the stenographer a speedy recovery,” he said from the Senate floor.