Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer dies at 68

Fox News ran a tribute to the conservative superstar shortly after the announcement of his passing.

Krauthammer announced earlier this month that his cancer had returned and he only had several more weeks to live, following was initially was thought to have been a successful operation to treat the cancer.

“That operation was thought to have been a success, but it caused a cascade of secondary complications — which I have been fighting in hospital ever since,” Krauthammer wrote in a statement. “It was a long and hard fight with many setbacks, but I was steadily, if slowly, overcoming each obstacle along the way and gradually making my way back to health.”

“However, recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned,” Krauthammer continued. “There was no sign of it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly. My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live.”

[Related: The irreplaceable Charles Krauthammer]

Krauthammer was well recognized for his role as a panelist each evening on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier,” in addition to other appearances on Fox News shows.

“R.I.P. good friend,” Baier tweeted Thursday. “I am sure you will be owning the panel discussion in heaven as well. And we’ll make sure your wise words and thoughts – your legacy – will live on here @krauthammer.”

Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott also offered her condolences in a statement Thursday evening.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague and friend, Charles Krauthammer. A gifted doctor and brilliant political commentator, Charles was a guiding voice throughout his time with FOX News, and we were incredibly fortunate to showcase his extraordinary talent on our programs,” Scott said.

“He was an inspiration to all of us and will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his beloved wife Robyn and his son Daniel.”

Krauthammer was required to use a wheelchair following an accident that occurred he was 22 years old.

“We go for a swim, we take a few dives, and I hit my head on the bottom of the pool,” Krauthammer said in a Fox News special in 2013. “The amazing thing is there was not even a cut on my head. It just hit at precisely the angle where all the force was transmitted to one spot … the cervical vertebrae which severed the spinal cord.”

But Krauthammer didn’t like it when people “make a big thing about it,” he said in an interview with the Washington Post.

“That was the one thing that bothered me very early on,” Krauthammer stated. “The first week, I thought, the terrible thing is that people are going to judge me now by a different standard. If I can just muddle through life, they’ll say it was a great achievement, given this.”

“I thought that would be the worst, that would be the greatest defeat in my life — if I allowed that,” he added. “I decided if I could make people judge me by the old standard, that would be a triumph, and that’s what I try to do. It seemed to me the only way to live.”

Despite the injury, which happened during his first year at Harvard Medical School, Krauthammer continued his education at Harvard and later completed a three-year residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.

He eventually got into politics as a speech writer for former Vice President Walter Mondale in 1980.

Krauthammer is survived by his wife, Robyn, and his son, Daniel.