Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) on Thursday predicted he would be back to 100 percent health after surgeons repair his fractured eye socket.
Reid said he would be out several days after the surgery, which is scheduled for Monday but plans to return full time afterward.
{mosads}“I met with one of the doctors yesterday, and he felt extremely confident that I would be fine,” Reid told reporters at his first press conference on Capitol Hill since injuring himself while exercising at home at the beginning of the year.
“They told me I’ll be down several days next week for obvious reasons, but there’s no reason I can’t come back to work a week from Monday,” he added.
He will undergo the operation at George Washington University Hospital.
Reid has been suffering from partial blindness since the accident. He said the surgery will repair bones around his eye and drain blood that has collected in front of and behind the eye.
He sustained the injury at his new home in Henderson, Nevada, on New Year’s Day while exercising when a resistance band snapped and hit him in the right eye, spinning him around and sending him crashing into several cabinets.
He said he is committed to running for reelection in 2016.
“At this stage I’m fully intending to run,” he said.
When asked if any circumstance might arise that would change his mind, he said flatly: “I plan to run.”
Reid declined to reveal the name of the company that manufactured the faulty exercise brand and left open the possibility of future litigation.
When asked about the prospect of a lawsuit, he said, “let’s say if I were, I wouldn’t be broadcasting it here.”
He has been spending his free time listening to audio books to feed his literary addiction, which has been constrained by limited vision.
He has spent “a lot of time” with his staff and has consulted regularly with the other members of the Democratic leadership.
“I’ve been heavily involved in everything that’s gone on on the floor. There’s been no surprises for me,” he said.
This post was updated at 2:09 p.m.