Congressman: Murtha's intestine damaged in surgery

[February 09, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Pennsylvania congressman and longtime friend of the late Rep. John Murtha says the congressman's large intestine was damaged during gallbladder surgery and the complications led him to be hospitalized.

Murtha died Monday at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., where he was admitted on Jan. 31.

The gallbladder surgery was performed days earlier at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Rep. Bob Brady says an infection developed and that Murtha had a fever when he was admitted to the Virginia hospital.

Messages left with the Bethesda hospital were not immediately returned.

Brady calls Murtha his "buddy" and says he'll remember him forever.

[Associated Press; By KIMBERLY HEFLING]

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