The article is vague, but it sounds like he was in the hospital for the better part of a week. If I'm reading that incorrectly, please ignore my post. What horrifies me is that the SECDEF is in the hospital for days and no-one in his office bothers to inform the White House. I'm equally horrified that the White House apparently did not notice they hadn't heard from him in several days. Does he have a spouse that could have called someone? Did SECDEF notify anyone or was it the kind of medical emergency that would preclude that? Did his staff know or did they not know? If they knew did they inform the White House? If they didn't know, did they just ignore a missing SECDEF for several days? I've had people no-show for work and if I can't get them to pick up the phone I go to their house and knock on their door, even if it's 3 am. This is basic Lieutenant level stuff that the very top of our government got wrong. The whole situation is utterly inexcusable and the public is owed a straight answer on what went wrong.