Six-term Democratic Rep. Julia Carson has told a newspaper she has terminal lung cancer but did not say if she intends to hold onto her seat or seek a seventh term.
Carson, 69, said in a statement in The Indianapolis Star on Sunday that she had planned to return to Washington after recuperating from a leg infection, but that a doctor then found the cancer.
“It had gone into remission years before, but it was back with a terminal vengeance,” she said.
Carson made no comment beyond the statement. Her spokesman, Chad Chitwood, didn’t immediately respond to a call Sunday from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Ann Delaney, a former Democratic Party state chairwoman, told the newspaper that Carson’s health appeared to have deteriorated over the past year.
“Frankly, any of us who had seen her in the last year thought there was something pretty seriously wrong with her,” DeLaney said.
Carson was admitted to an Indianapolis hospital Sept. 21 for treatment of a deep leg infection. Her office had said Carson intended to return to Congress by mid-December, but that was before “the second shoe fell — heavily,” her statement said.
Carson previously said she intended to seek re-election, but declined to confirm that during a recent radio interview. She did not address the issue in her statement published Sunday.