~ US Sen. John McCain
John McCain, a Navy Admiral 's son and a Navy fighter pilot who ran for US president as a self-styled maverick Republican in 2008
and became a prominent critic for his Nation's national issues, a Patriot, died on Saturday, his
office said. He was 81
McCain, a US senator from Arizona for over three decades, had
been battling glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, discovered by his
doctors in July 2017, and had not been at the US Capitol in 2018. He also had
surgery for an intestinal infection in April (2018).
A statement from his office said: "Senator John Sidney
McCain III died at 4:28 p.m. on August 25, 2018. With the senator when he
passed were his wife Cindy and their family. At his death, he had served the
United States of America faithfully for sixty years." No further details
were immediately provided.
August 24, 2018
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has chosen to discontinue medical treatment for brain cancer, citing the disease’s progress, his family announced Friday morning.
The
decision comes more than a year after the 81-year-old senator made public
his diagnosis of an aggressive form of
glioblastoma. McCain’s prognosis was serious, his family recalled in a
statement provided to HuffPost.
“In
the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival,” the
statement said. “But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age
render their verdict. With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to
discontinue medical treatment.”
The
senator has been treating the cancer primarily at the Mayo Clinic in his home
state of Arizona. Doctors there confirmed the diagnosis last year after
removing a blood clot above McCain’s left eye.
McCain’s
family initially released an optimistic statement to say the senator was “in
good spirits.” His doctors said
in the following months that he was responding well to treatment.
“Our
family is immensely grateful for the support and kindness of all his caregivers
over the last year, and for the continuing outpouring of concern and affection
from John’s many friends and associates, and the many thousands of people who
are keeping him in their prayers,” the McCain family said. “God bless and thank
you all.”
McCain
has served in Congress for more than three decades after being elected to the
House of Representatives in 1982. He became a senator in 1987 and has served as
chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and the Senate Armed Services
Committee. Famously, he ran a presidential campaign in 2008 against Democratic
candidate Barack Obama with then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running
mate.
Upon
his return to Capitol Hill just days after receiving his diagnosis, the
longtime senator received a standing
ovation.
“I got
very choked up,” McCain said of the moment in an interview on “60 Minutes.”
“And then, of course, you know, all of them coming over and giving me a hug. It
was deeply moving. I had never seen anything like that.”
He
voted against President Donald Trump’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act
with a dramatic thumbs-down gesture the president has since mocked at rallies.
Several months later, in December, McCain was forced to miss a major vote on
the Republican
tax bill to undergo treatment in Arizona.
McCain
told “60 Minutes” that he accepted his diagnosis by telling his family,
“[W]e’re going to do what we can, get the best doctors we can find and do the
best we can. And at the same time, celebrate with gratitude a life well-lived.”
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