Rick Santorum Leaves Campaign Trail To Be With Hospitalized Daughter

For the past few days, there's been talk about Republic presidential candidate Rick Santorum leaving Florida to get an early jump on other states in which he's polling better, but unfortunately, he's been forced to leave for another reason entirely. The former Senator's daughter has been admitted to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Bella Santorum was born three years ago with Edwards Disease, commonly called Trisomy 18. The genetic disorder results from the full or partial formation of an extra eighteenth chromosome during development in the womb. Doctors initially speculated Bella probably wouldn't live past her first birthday. Now she's made it to three, but unfortunately, it's still often a struggle.

According to People, Santorum is unsure how long he might be back in his home state of Pennsylvania, but if his daughter improves, he would like to get back out on the campaign trail. As for now, his most famous supporters The Duggar Family of 19 Kids And Counting will fill in for him on his remaining campaign stops in Florida.

There's no pain quite like having to care for a seriously sick child. Love his policies or hate them, Rick Santorum is obviously going through a lot right now, and Pop Blend sends out its deepest sympathies to his entire family. The odds say Bella should have lost her fight a long time ago, but like her father, she's continued scrapping. We wish her nothing but the best.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.