2008-10-02

McCain suffering from TIA?

I personally haven't seen any videos showing McCain's behaviour lately, but a doctor weighed in over at Americablog on McCain's "confusion":
I actually viewed the bumbling around the stage episode on TV while I was leaning over a patient today - and was somewhat concerned. In light of the fact that this occurred just seconds after the facial issues that you documented in the other video is very very disturbing. Let me put it like this. If I had seen a 70-75 year old man do that in front of me in the emergency room - that gentleman would be immediately admitted for what is known as a TIA. This is a mini-stroke that often comes before a big huge one. It is likely that if this occurred - Senator McCain may have realized something was wrong - and immediately began looking for an exit. This bumbling lost behavior followed by the initial onset of the symptoms is very commonly described by family members witnessing such events. Regardless, he should be admitted to the hospital for observation - ruled out for strokes with tests - and possibly be immediately begun on certain meds to attempt to abort any other such attacks.

...

I showed this video to 3 colleagues today - AND a neurologist - all of us agreed - this is concerning and should be immediately evaluated. It is, however, impossible to make medical diagnosis via a video - unless you are Bill Frist or Tom Coburn. I would caution you to be careful about making any insinuations about his medical condition based on just that alone. However, I am concerned enough about what I saw of Senator McCain today that he should be seeing a doctor immediately.
Nice to see that there is a disclaimer note in the last paragraph. I'm hoping this is just a beat-up (deliberately or accidentally) perpetrated by lefty-bloggers because to hope they are right would make me less than a normal human being.

1 comment:

Ron said...

It is a worry. I have always been worried about his age - he is a year older than me - would I run for anything. My mother in law now 87 has had several TIA - a specialist says the personality part of the brain has been damaged. 2 years ago we saw one TIA - we were taking her to shops she wanted to visit. When we got there "what are we doing here?" Completely out of it - where we were and from whence we came. We got in car and drove away and suddenly she was back with no memory of past few minutes.

The comments on the your link to America blog were quite reasoned and several from medical people. I gather he has not released his medical records for any independent review. And mention was made of whatever trauma he might have because of his POW time.

This is NOT just any old job.

Just saw VP debate. Whilst Palin was stable and reasoned and gaffe-less I thought Biden came over very well.

God Bless America