It turns out Bella Santorum, the three-year old daughter of Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, is not being treated at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
According to the former Pa. senator's communication director, Bella was hospitalized with pneumonia in Virginia and was never a patient in Philadelphia.
Santorum’s campaign office says staffers mistakenly assumed the family came to CHOP because of the hospital’s good reputation. There are also reports that Santorum’s youngest child has been treated at CHOP in the past.
Bella has Trisomy 18, a genetic condition that can be life threatening.
Santorum made two campaign appearances in Chester County, Pa. and in Philadelphia last Friday. He said he got to his home in Virginia around midnight Friday for a quick break to do his taxes, but found his daughter "was not doing well."
Saturday evening, Santorum aides announced Bella had been admitted to the hospital and they canceled a Sunday morning interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" and church services in Miami. His aides later canceled his trip to Florida and instead sent his 20-year-old daughter to campaign for him.
Santorum said by late Sunday Bella was "alert and back to her own beautiful, happy girl."
Politics
Santorum called his daughter's recovery a "miraculous turnaround."
