Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel and CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta both weighed in on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnellā€™s (R-KY) latest freezing incident on Wednesday and suggested what the underlying health issue could be.

On Fox Newsā€™ The Special Report with Bret Baier following the incident, Siegel noted that while he hadnā€™t examined McConnell, his best guess ā€œwould be Parkinsonā€™s disease because that, in its later stages, can give you a freeze.ā€

Gupta also raised the possibility of Parkinsonā€™s disease during an appearance on CNNā€™s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday.

ā€œThereā€™s a long list of possibilities here. I think what we saw was pretty concerning. I think most people could see that,ā€ Gupta said. ā€œIt was similar to what we saw in July where there was this freezing. Itā€™s the freezing of the speech, itā€™s the freezing of the body, itā€™s the tight sort of grasping of the side of the lectern.ā€

He continued, ā€œHis face even has this mask-like feature to it. So thereā€™s a lot of things that are going on there.ā€

Gupta argued that while McConnell could have suffered from a seizure or something similar, ā€œIt could be something like when somebody comes off of their medications for things like Parkinsonā€™s. When the medication start to wear off, they may start to have freezing episodes as well.ā€

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Obviously something very wrong happened to McConnell and I think itā€™s way past the time he retires, but Iā€™m not a fan of diagnosing someone remotely without knowing their medical history or the results of ongoing medical investigations. I didnā€™t like it when Bill Frist did it with Terry Schiavo and I donā€™t like it now.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      obviously itā€™s stupid to suggest we can figure it out with any expectation of accuracy. That saidā€¦ We can figure out enough to say ā€œthis ainā€™t a good sign.ā€

      Also, its funny how the WebMD Symptom-thingy for headaches starts off with ā€œMeh just a headacheā€ and rapidly progresses to ā€œyer gonna dieā€ pretty quicklyā€¦ and weā€™re not gonna get anything more accurate withoutā€¦ the, uh, full on routine.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I donā€™t think CNN should be having medical experts on to talk about it at all. Report what happened, report the fallout. Wait until his doctors say something, with his permission, because itā€™s nobodyā€™s business what his exact condition is even if it is detrimental to the Senate and its proceedings. Medical details are private. Period.

        And CNN (and probably the other channels) has done this for decades. Most recently with Sanjay Gupta. Any time some major person appears to have a health issue, Gupta is there to speculate. I donā€™t think itā€™s his fault, he seems to be competent enough, but itā€™s not CNNā€™s business to do it.

        • Adlach@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          I wish to God his health was his business alone, but I think he signed that right away upon becoming a (peace of shit) politician. His health has significant public ramifications and therefore falls within the public interest.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          "well, we canā€™t really say much at all without a full workup, but, you knowā€¦ that he really should go get looked atā€¦ and its possibly " might be okay. of course the nature of soundbitesā€¦ thatā€™s gonna turn into ā€œhe deadman.ā€ pretty quickly.