Santorum Says Daughter Has Made 'Miraculous Turnaround'

(NewsCore) - Rick Santorum said Sunday night his daughter Bella had made a "miraculous turnaround," with his campaign team later announcing that he would be back on the trail Monday afternoon.

The Republican presidential candidate made the comments while addressing a tele-town hall meeting with Florida and Minnesota voters from his daughter's hospital room.

Santorum admitted his three-year-old daughter, whose full name is Isabella, to a hospital in Philadelphia late Saturday suffering from pneumonia in both lungs.

The former Pennsylvania senator said Bella has to wear a mask to help with her breathing but is "alert" and "smiling." She will spend another two to four days in the hospital, The National Journal reported.

Santorum said the past 36 hours have been "rough" but Bella has "turned a corner" and is getting back to her normal self, before adding that they still "have a long way to go," FOX News Channel reported.

His campaign later released a new schedule for the candidate, showing he will skip Florida ahead of the state's primary on Tuesday, and will instead head to Missouri and Minnesota on Monday and Colorado and Nevada on Tuesday.

Santorum's first appearance will be at 2:30pm local time in Cottleville, Mo., where he will "make a major address focusing on jobs, the economy, and American competitiveness," his campaign said.

Later Monday, Santorum will host a town hall meeting at a Pizza Ranch restaurant in Luverne, Minn., before heading to Lone Tree, Colo., on Tuesday for a campaign rally and a primary night watch party in Las Vegas on Tuesday night.

Earlier Sunday, Santorum spokesperson Hogan Gidley said Santorum would be absent from the campaign trail as Bella recovered.

"Due to the heath of his youngest daughter Bella, Rick Santorum will remain with his family today," Gidley said.

"However, the campaign will resume the following Florida schedule using surrogates. Rick himself intends to return to Florida and resume the campaign schedule as soon as is possible."

Santorum's oldest daughter, 20-year-old Elizabeth Santorum, and the Duggar family of TLC's reality show "19 and Counting" stood in for the Republican presidential hopeful on the campaign trail in Florida, including a rally in Sarasota and the Charlotte County Lincoln Day Dinner in Punta Gorda.

Elizabeth Santorum said her family is coping.

"You know we do what we do as a family, you know we stick together and you know, we get through and we're hanging in there," she said.

The Duggar family has previously campaigned for the former senator, with whom they share similar religiously conservative beliefs.

Bella, the youngest of Santorum and wife Karen's seven children, was born with Trisomy 18. The genetic condition, also known as Edwards syndrome, is caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. It affects one in 6,000 live births, mostly females, and most children born with the condition do not survive longer than a year.

In an October campaign advertisement, Santorum said, "We understand that her life is going to be different than our other children. But we felt that we owed her the opportunity, the chance to do as well as she could.

"I look at her, and I look at the joy, and the simplicity, and the love that she emits, and it's clear to me that we're the disabled ones, not her. She's got it right."

In addition to their seven living children, the Santorums lost a son, Gabriel, who died just hours after he was born in 1996.