Former Chicago Mayor Daley leaves hospital
CHICAGO — Former Mayor Richard M. Daley left a Chicago hospital Saturday after more than a week of tests to determine why he was feeling ill and disoriented during a business trip.
The 71-year-old Daley smiled and waved but did not stop to speak to the large crowd of reporters and videographers waiting outside Northwestern Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago.
The city’s longest-serving mayor was taken by ambulance to the hospital’s intensive care unit on Jan. 31 upon returning from a conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. But doctors and his family so far have not released any details on his health condition.
“My hope is that the sight of him will stop some of the outlandish rumors I’ve heard,” his longtime aide and spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard said in an email.
Wearing a grey overcoat and a fedora, Daley was brought to the hospital lobby Saturday in a wheelchair, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. But he walked outside to a waiting minivan with no assistance and accompanied by his son.
Daley had been complaining of feeling ill during the conference in Arizona, and on his family’s insistence he was met by an ambulance after flying back to Chicago.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Sheila Galloro said Saturday she could not release any details on his health. Heard said there might be an update from the family later.
Daley has maintained an active schedule since leaving office in 2011, working for the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and exercising regularly, even while traveling.
Daley was the city’s mayor for 22 years, a year longer than his father, the legendary Richard J. Daley, who was 74 when he died in 1976 of a heart attack while still in office.
In 2010, Richard M. Daley surprised the city when he announced that he would not seek a seventh term. He was succeeded by Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff.
About six months after Daley left office, his wife, Maggie, died Thanksgiving Day after a long battle with breast cancer.