On February 12, 2006, shortly after the beginning of the General Assembly's legislative session, Fletcher was hospitalized with abdominal pain. Doctors at St. Joseph East hospital in Lexington found a gallstone in his common bile duct and also diagnosed him with an inflamed pancreas and gallbladder disease. After surgery to remove the gallbladder, Fletcher developed a blood infection that slowed his recovery, but was discharged from the hospital on March 1. Days later, he returned to St. Joseph's with a blood clot which had to be dissolved, resulting in another five-day stay in the hospital. Fletcher staffers insisted that his absence did not have a negative impact on his ability to get legislation passed during the session. A right-to-work law and a repeal of the state's prevailing wage law – both advocated by Fletcher – failed early in the session, but both had been considered unlikely to pass before the session started. Among the bills that did pass the session were a mandatory seat belt law, a law requiring children under 16 years old to wear a helmet when operating an all-terrain vehicle, and legislation allowing the Ten Commandments to be posted on Capitol grounds in a historical context.