A person who called 911 requesting an ambulance to come to the home of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Jan. 1 asked the dispatcher to ask first responders not to use sirens and lights because “We’re trying to remain a little subtle,” the caller said.
“Can the ambulance not show up with lights and sirens? We’re trying to remain a little subtle,” said the caller, whose identity was redacted, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News. The ambulance was dispatched to a single-family home on Austin’s street and took a patient to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, according to NBC.
The 911 recording partly redacted the reason the caller gave for calling for an ambulance. Details of the 911 audio file from the Fairfax County Public Safety Department were first reported by The Daily Beast.
According to the caller, Austin did not have chest pain and had not vomited blood. He was described as “alert.”
Austin, who had prostate surgery on Dec. 22, was hospitalized on New Year’s Day with complications resulting from the treatment.
The Pentagon explained that Austin was placed in the hospital’s intensive care unit “due to his medical needs, but then remained in that location in part due to hospital space considerations and privacy,” The Associated Press reported.
According to the AP, neither the White House nor the National Security Council were notified that Austin — who in addition to being Defense secretary is sixth in the line of succession to the presidency — had been admitted to Walter Reed until he had been there for at least three days.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks was not told that Austin had been hospitalized when she assumed some of his duties on Tuesday, two defense officials confirmed to CBS News.
Neither the National Security Council nor Hicks was not notified until Thursday that Austin had been hospitalized since Jan. 1.
Austin was released from Walter Reed on Monday. According to the Pentagon, he will be working from home as he recuperates, according to a statement he issued this week.
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