Texas Rep. Vicente Gonzalez fractures back after 12-foot fall at home

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Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, fractured parts of his lower back after taking a fall while working from home last week, his office said Monday.

Gonzalez, whose district covers parts of the U.S.-Mexico border along with the outskirts of San Antonio, fell approximately 12 feet while working around his home in McAllen, the statement said. He was taken to the nearby hospital where doctors discovered he had sustained fractures in his lower back.

Gonzalez’s press secretary Jason Johnson said that he has been ordered to remain in bed for four to six weeks while he recovers, but added that the Democratic congressman will continue working throughout his convalescence.

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“Congressman Gonzalez will continue working from home,” Johnson said in a statement. “He will make a statement in the near future on what transpired.”

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Gonzalez joined Congress in 2017 after defeating Republican Tim Westley in the November general election, 57.3 percent to Westley's 37.7 percent. He has been known in his short time in the lower chamber of Congress to work across party lines – being the first Texas Democrat and first Latino in Congress to be invited by President Trump to a private dinner at the White House and was one of seven Democratic lawmakers to meet with Trump to put an end to the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history last January.

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He also has become a key figure in foreign policy – joining in the U.S. delegation to the inauguration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and meeting with world leaders from Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.