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

On Fox News’ The Special Report with Bret Baier following the incident, Siegel noted that while he hadn’t examined McConnell, his best guess “would be Parkinson’s disease because that, in its later stages, can give you a freeze.”

Gupta also raised the possibility of Parkinson’s disease during an appearance on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday.

“There’s a long list of possibilities here. I think what we saw was pretty concerning. I think most people could see that,” Gupta said. “It was similar to what we saw in July where there was this freezing. It’s the freezing of the speech, it’s the freezing of the body, it’s the tight sort of grasping of the side of the lectern.”

He continued, “His face even has this mask-like feature to it. So there’s a lot of things that are going on there.”

Gupta argued that while McConnell could have suffered from a seizure or something similar, “It could be something like when somebody comes off of their medications for things like Parkinson’s. When the medication start to wear off, they may start to have freezing episodes as well.”

  • Dad2DnA@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The fact that his team clearly had a protocol for this and no one freaked out about it tells me this happens a lot more frequently off camera than on. This is what we can expect from the Senate minority leader moving forward. At least until '26, if he lasts that long.

    • BruceTwarzen@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Behold, our most capable leaders. This one was old as fuck too fat to walk and very dumb, don’t ask him questions. The next one is even older so, better. There is also this guy that sometimes doesn’t work anymore, because he’s as old as the dirt you walk on.

  • starrox
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    1 year ago

    I have a theory as well: Those freezes happen when some of the millions of souls he has hurt in his lifetime break out for a moment and start to haunt him.

    On a more serious note: I cant fathom the immense lust/hunger for power this person must posess to still refuse to retire. Afaik he’s a millionaire anyway but he still grabs on to the tits of power like the ghoul he is. Disgusting human being.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

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

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      obviously it’s stupid to suggest we can figure it out with any expectation of accuracy. That said… We can figure out enough to say “this ain’t a good sign.”

      Also, its funny how the WebMD Symptom-thingy for headaches starts off with “Meh just a headache” and rapidly progresses to “yer gonna die” pretty quickly… and we’re not gonna get anything more accurate without… the, uh, full on routine.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’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 it’s nobody’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 don’t think it’s his fault, he seems to be competent enough, but it’s not CNN’s business to do it.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          "well, we can’t really say much at all without a full workup, but, you know… that he really should go get looked at… and its possibly " might be okay. of course the nature of soundbites… that’s gonna turn into “he deadman.” pretty quickly.

  • IHeartBadCode@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    both weighed in on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) latest freezing incident on Wednesday and suggested what the underlying health issue could be.

    In my non-medical opinion, I would say that it looks like he suffers from "Should of fucking retired ten years ago"itis.

    This country has got to do better than keep electing these old ass dementia fuckers.

  • kromem@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Talked to a neurologist about it and they were in agreement with the speculation from other neurologists around seizures as the most likely, was very focused on the fact he had a concussion recently, though also proposed that the frequent falls in combination with the staring might be Lewy Body, though would have expected longer staring if that.

    In line with the responsible commentators, agreed couldn’t know for sure without a workup.

    But the interesting part for me was that it was definitely seen as fitting with a neurological issue, even if the underlying cause wasn’t known.

    • Jordan Lund@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      Must have been the same one I saw, they said not uncommon following a concussion serious enough to be hospitalized for it.

    • Piecemakers@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And yet, here we are, politically… Plain as the mask melting off right in front of our faces, but nothing happens. We’ve spent so long pointing fingers even those that claim to represent us do only that — if as much, frankly. 🤷🏼‍♂️

  • bucho@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    Maybe it’s just a software lockup. We should stick a paperclip in his ear and trigger a factory reset.