Zimmer back in hospital with pneumonia again

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This article was published 25/05/2013 (4848 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Manitoba Liberal Sen. Rod Zimmer is battling pneumonia in hospital for the second time this year.

Zimmer, 70, was rushed to hospital in Ottawa by ambulance May 20 and is awaiting test results.

He is in intensive care but has not been placed on a ventilator and is awake and talking.

Zimmer, one of two Liberals from Manitoba in the upper chamber, has battled repeated health problems in the last several years. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2003 and given only a 20 per cent chance of survival.

Zimmer spent nearly three weeks in hospital battling pneumonia earlier this year.

A longtime Liberal fundraiser, Zimmer worked for Canwest Corp., Manitoba Lotteries and the Pan Am Games in varying communications and marketing positions. He was appointed to the Senate in 2005.

He was in the spotlight last fall when his wife, Maygan Sensenberger, was arrested after an incident on an Air Canada flight between Ottawa and Saskatoon. Zimmer reportedly fell ill on the flight and Sensenberger flew off the handle.

Sensenberger ultimately pled guilty to causing a disturbance on a plane. Another charge of uttering threats was dropped. She received a one-year suspended sentence.

The incident gained international attention mostly because of the age difference between the two. Sensenberger is 23. The couple were married in the fall of 2011 in Ottawa and own a home in Ottawa’s tony Rockcliffe neighbourhood.