Arkansas Blog

By Ginger Shiras

Of the Times staff

State Senator Randy Laverty of Jasper said Thursday that he had spent 13 days in the Mountain Home hospital, two of them unconscious, with a kidney infection.

Reached by his cell phone, he said he is in an extended rehabilitation program out of state to "get my kidneys back in shape.

Laverty said he had back problems following a car accident last fall but didn't know what was wrong when "I got terribly ill and started vomiting" the weekend of April 12. He said he was rushed to the Harrison hospital and "it turned out I had been having a kidney infection for about six months and didn't realize it."

He said he was taken by ambulance to the Mountain Home hospital, where he could be treated by kidney specialists, who worked on him for 13 days, then sent him to a rehab program with renal specialists.

"They really thought it was a miraculous recovery that I had," he said.

He declined to say where he was Thursday, noting that his doctors "don't want me to have many phone calls or much contact while I'm being treated."

"They indicated that they prefer not telling people where I was. A lot of people know but I haven't been telling folks and I'd rather not put it in print."

"I'm feeling stronger every day, though I'm still a little tired," he
said."I'm going to be off work about 20 days and then I should be back to
work."

Laverty, 45, a Democrat, served six years in the state House of Representative and began serving in the state Senate in 2003. He is seeking a new four-year term this year without opposition.