Update 4/16/22: the tweet has been deleted.

A Republican legislator on Thursday defended his Democratic colleague from criticism over the latter missing a crucial committee vote on a measure that seeks to confront Colorado’s fentanyl crisis.

House GOP spokesperson Isabelle Daigle criticized Rep. Steven Woodrow, D-Denver, on Twitter after Woodrow skipped the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday and Wednesday, when the panel heard testimony, debated and passed House Bill 1326, which increases criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of fentanyl and funds the state’s multi-pronged response to fentanyl overdoses.   

“I thought surgery was ‘a procedure performed for the purpose of structurally altering the human body by incision or destruction of tissues,'” wrote Daigle, who also posted a screenshot of an event that Woodrow attended with Gov. Jared Polis later on Wednesday.   

“My surgery was at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Ms. Daigle,” Woodrow responded Thursday. “Do you think it’s appropriate to stay up past 3 a.m. the night before a cardiac ablation and ICD generator change? I’d say do better, but we all know you’re incapable. p.s. I’m recovering well, thanks.”

Rep. Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock, came to Woodrow’s defense. 

“I can criticize @WoodrowForCO on lots of policy issues,” Neville tweeted. “But missing a committee that went until 3:00 am when his heart procedure was only a few hours later isn’t something I can criticize. I hope he gets better.”

Cardiac ablation is a procedure that scars tissue in the heart to block irregular electrical signals.

A House Democratic caucus source told Colorado Politics Woodrow has a history of heart problems.

It’s not the first time a Republican Party officer criticized a Democratic lawmaker over a medical issue.

In April 2018, Daniel Cole, then the spokesman for the Colorado GOP, blasted then-Rep. Dominique Jackson, D-Aurora, on a Facebook post for napping during the daily House proceedings.

Jackson, in fact, was recovering from a surgery and had developed blood clots in her lungs. 

“Twice a month, I go down the street and spend seven hours hooked up to an IV, getting thousands and thousands of white blood cells,” Jackson told 9News. “Yesterday, it was everything in my power that I could do to not throw up. They changed some of my medications.”

The next day, Jackson, Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Aurora, and then-Rep. Kimmi Clark Lewis went to the House microphone to talk about their cancer battles and to ask people to think before they speak.

Lewis died from breast cancer 20 months later. 

“People don’t always know what’s going on in other people’s lives,” Jackson said that day. “And sometimes people can do things that are really hurtful.”

Cole deleted the post and apologized to Jackson.

As of 3 p.m., Friday, Daigle’s tweet, which is still up, has picked up more than two dozen comments criticizing her. Her boss, Minority Leader Rep. Hugh McKean, R-Loveland, did not respond to a request for comment.