Here is an article from 3 years ago, where he just said he chose to not see a doctor and thought he could manage his health well enough with weight management and exercise, and regretted afterward not seeking medical treatment.
“The stroke I suffered on May 13 didn’t come out of nowhere. Like so many others, and so many men in particular, I avoided going to the doctor, even though I knew I didn’t feel well. As a result, I almost died,” he said. “I want to encourage others to not make the same mistake.”
Fetterman said he “didn’t follow up” because he thought “losing weight and exercising would be enough” to address his heart issues. He admits he was wrong, saying that the stroke he suffered was “completely preventable” and that his doctors have told him that if he had “continued taking the blood thinners, I never would have had a stroke.”
A year after that article, he did check into a hospital because of depression, but he had been neglecting his health as far back as 2017, when he was diagnosed with a-fib, and I don’t see anywhere he is directly blaming the depression as a reason for not seeking treatment.
Dr. Ramesh Chandra said he first saw Fetterman in 2017, when he reported having swollen feet. He said he diagnosed him with “atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, along with a decreased heart pump.” Although he advised him to follow up in the coming months, the doctor said Fetterman did not and “did not go to any doctor for 5 years and did not continue to take his medications.”
Rather, it seems like the depression came after all of his other health issues.
Fetterman, who had a stroke nearly a year ago, said his depression worsened after he was elected to the Senate in November.
“I stopped getting out of bed. And it wasn’t because I was just tired. It was just because I didn’t want to,” he said, adding that his children were confused about why he wasn’t happy after he won a grueling campaign.