WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum canceled his Sunday morning campaign events and planned to spend time with his hospitalized daughter.
"Rick and his wife Karen are admitting their daughter Bella to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia this evening," spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement Saturday night, adding "Rick intends to return to Florida and resume the campaign schedule as soon as is possible."
Santorum had been scheduled to appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" and attend church in Miami. Officials did not cancel Sunday's afternoon events in Sarasota and Punta Gorda.
Isabella Santorum has Trisomy 18, a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. When asked about her, Santorum says his daughter was not expected to survive until her first birthday and often has to catch himself to stop from tears.
"I have a little girl who's 3-and-a-half years old," he told Christian conservatives in Iowa before winning that lead-off contest.
"I don't know whether her life is going to be measured -- it's always been measured -- in days and weeks. Yet here I am. ... because I feel like I wouldn't be a good dad if I wasn't out here fighting for a country that would see the dignity in her and every other child."
When voters ask him about her, he calls the decision to campaign "gut-wrenching" but says he goes forward for all special needs families.
"You think she's fine, and then one cold and she's this close to dying," he told The Washington Post last year in an interview.
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