American officials have released the emergency phone call that hospitalized US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on New Year’s Day. The ambulance was asked not to use its lights and sirens and to try to be “inconspicuous”, the BBC reported, according to News.ro.

Austin’s delay in notifying colleagues and the White House about the cancer and the complications of the surgery sparked a political scandal and investigation.

In the audio recording, the unidentified caller asked the ambulance not to use its lights and sirens and to try to be “graceful.” The retired general was released on Monday after two weeks in hospital.

Austin, 70, was admitted to the intensive care unit on January 1 due to complications from “minimally invasive” prostate surgery in December. The secretary of defense is right behind the president in the chain of command.

The four-minute, heavily redacted call released Tuesday by Virginia state officials under a Freedom of Information request shows unidentified callers asking to transport Austin to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.

“Can an ambulance come without beacons and sirens? We’re trying to stay a little low profile,” the caller, whose name has been removed from the audio, told the 911 dispatcher.

Senior defense officials and the White House learned that Lloyd Austin was seriously ill just three days after he was readmitted to the hospital. That secrecy has raised safety and transparency concerns, and three investigations have since been launched into how his health crisis was handled.

The Pentagon later discovered that Austin had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Pentagon officials say Austin will work remotely from home while he recovers. He is expected to make a full recovery.

Lloyd Austin last week authorized several strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea from his hospital bed. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said the president spoke with Lloyd Austin last week by phone.

“The president is looking forward to the secretary’s return to the Pentagon,” Jean-Pierre said. “The secretary has been very involved in what we’re seeing in the Middle East,” she added.

While some senior Republicans have called on Joe Biden to fire the defense secretary, the president expressed full confidence in Austin but acknowledged the military chief showed a lack of insight by not telling the White House he was in the hospital.