Gabbard: Husband Cancer-Free After Eight-Hour Spine Surgery
Gabbard: Husband Cancer-Free After Eight-Hour Spine Surgery
The News
Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Thursday that her husband, Abraham Williams, is cancer-free after surgery for a rare tumor at the base of his spine.
Gabbard shared the update in an emotional video, first obtained by The Daily Wire, describing a diagnosis of sacral chordoma — a slow-growing bone tumor that forms in the sacrum, above the tailbone.
Doctors told the couple they are confident they removed all of the cancerous bone and tissue, Gabbard said. She added that the fight is not finished: "The battle isn't over yet."
Timeline
Williams went to a doctor for pain in his back, not knowing he had cancer. Doctors found a tumor growing around his tailbone, and after several rounds of biopsies diagnosed sacral chordoma.
"I picked up the phone, and Abraham's voice was different. He said that he got a call from his doctor," Gabbard recalled in the video, describing the moment she learned of the diagnosis.
Gabbard resigned as Director of National Intelligence, citing the demands of the job and saying in her resignation letter that she could not ask her husband to face cancer alone while she stayed in the post.
Gabbard left the Cabinet.
Williams underwent an operation that ran nearly eight hours. He declined narcotic pain medication during his recovery.
Roughly three months after the surgery, Gabbard posted the video update saying her husband is cancer-free and in a rigorous physical therapy program.
Reactions
Gabbard framed the update as both good news and an unfinished fight, telling viewers doctors are sure they got the cancerous tissue while stressing the road ahead.
Conservative outlets carried the video prominently. Fox News called the update "promising" and "emotional." The Daily Wire, which obtained the video first, described it as a raw account of the couple's months-long battle. RSBNetwork described Williams' fight as a brave one.
The National Desk reported the central medical takeaway plainly: doctors are confident the cancerous tissue was removed.
What's Next
Williams will continue a rigorous physical therapy program as he recovers from the eight-hour operation.
He will also undergo frequent MRIs to watch for the cancer returning — either at the same site or elsewhere. How often those scans will be done, and for how long, has not been specified.
Gabbard has not said what role, if any, she plans to take in public life following her resignation.
More
Sacral chordoma is rare and slow-growing, which is part of why it went undetected until Williams sought treatment for back pain. The tumor sits in the sacrum, the bone above the tailbone — a location that makes surgery long and complicated, and one reason the operation ran close to eight hours.
The diagnosis also carried a direct political consequence: it took a sitting intelligence chief out of the Trump administration. Gabbard stepped down as DNI in May and was out of the Cabinet by the end of June, telling the president in her resignation letter that she would not leave her husband to face cancer alone.
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