My father, who is 8 years older than McConnell, took a bad fall at the end of April. He wound up in the hospital with three cracked lumbar vertebrae, and soon after developed not only pneumonia, but a persistent UTI. He was in rehab for a month, and between the pneumonia, the UTI, and being in strange places (the hospital, then two different rehab facilities), he started, quite suddenly, exhibiting signs of dementia after the fall: delusions, not being able to separate dreams from reality, unable to remember what day it was, etc. He had times when he was very lucid and “himself,” and times when he was, to be honest, off his nut. After a few weeks in that state, the doctors at the rehab facility decided that they needed to activate dad’s Power of Attorney document for medical decisions, as they determined that he could not consistently make such decisions on his own.
It took weeks for us to get the medical professionals to take us seriously that “no, he really didn’t used to be this way!” Finally, the UTI was stamped out, and he’s now been in one place – an assisted living facility – for the past three weeks. He is 95% “himself” again, and the delusions appear to be behind us, for now.
tl;dr: Just saying “he had pneumonia” may well not be the entire story, as far as his health or cognitive state. We may well not ever know the full story, at least while McConnell is still alive.
Skimmed the most recent posts just now and didn’t see anyone link to this, so here, and take this with another grain of salt, but X/Twitter has a Grok community note that says the image of McConnell is AI generated.
I apologize if I gave the impression that I was referring to others. I realize that Democrats will attack other Democrats. I have done it over policy or integrity issues.
It is me personally that might have defended Wilson’s unexplained, or barely explained, medical absence, if I had noticed it being under attack.
I think being a legislator is a fine job for elderly politicians and am OK with what goes with it.
The linked article itself contains refutations to the effect that the Grok quote is about a different earlier photograph. And that the main proponent is Laura Loomer. So make that a boulder of salt.
If we never know the full story, it will be because it just isn’t that important.
Suppose someone writes one of those well-reviewed thousand page magisterial biographies of McConnell after he is gone. How many pages will concern what happened after McConnell no longer led his party in the Senate? Unless he lives much longer than reasonably expected, not a whole lot.
He’s in a rehabilitation hospital for a reason. As Paul_was_in_Saudi speculates, it could involve speech and/or mobility issues. My speculation would be – mostly mobility.
As a human, I wish him well. As a Democrat, I hope he takes all the time he needs and more.
I knew exactly where this story was going once you said UTI. I mean, how does a urinary infection have such a significant impact on cognition? It happened to my mom at least a couple of times, so disturbing, to have someone who was with it, who was totally there, suddenly not be at all with it.
There’s likely more to this episode than we’ll know about for quite awhile. Unwarranted secrecy about the health of important public officials like McConnell has generated additional scrutiny, thanks to the lack of candor about Trump and his repeated “physicals” and cognition tests.
This happened to my mom, too. And to a couple of people here at The Home. It’s really the first thing a doctor should consider when a person presents with a sudden onset of confused behavior. But it often isn’t.
…
Our research shows UTIs can cause acute brain dysfunction through inflammation. An infection in the bladder releases inflammatory signals into the bloodstream, which can affect the brain and disrupt normal function, leading to delirium.
Older adults are more vulnerable because their brains are often less resilient to physiological stress.
UTIs aren’t the only infections that can trigger this response. Any systemic infection, including pneumonia, gastrointestinal infections or skin infections, can provoke widespread inflammation that affects the brain and causes acute confusion.
…
I think so because there’s some Spqnish then gibberish. It looks like a prank or hoax to me. Not that I’m an expert.
The actual photo that is being circulated by the media is not legible, I have no idea where that photo came from in the other thread. I’d bet from social media.
I wouldn’t think we should really expect to know the specifics. He’s still entitled to the same privacy any other medical patient is.
Where they screwed up is in not just announcing that he was taking a temporary break for medical reasons, how long he was expected to be out of commission, and what to do in his absence. That’s the bare minimum at most workplaces. Even when I accidentally injured my knee and ended up having surgery the next day without warning, I texted my boss and told him the situation, and when/how I expected to be back in the saddle.
I’d expect no less from a Congressman. Instead, we got the “Where in the world is Mitch McConnell, and is he dead?” game. Which isn’t acceptable for even a state legislator, much less a United States Senator. Just a “Senator McConnell has suffered an unexpected medical emergency and is not expected to be at work in the Senate until further notice. Please contact Senator Paul with any pressing legislative needs.” would have been sufficient, IMO. Nobody but his doctors and family need to know whether it’s pneumonia, violent explosive diarrhea, or anything else.
Yes, the text on the newspaper in that particular photo looks like AI gibberish. What this implies for McConnell’s actual state of health is something else entirely.
On the hospital-occurring disorientation point: my father was hospitalized for respiratory issues (think really bad asthma) and during the periods he was low on oxygen he was really out of it. At one point he tried to bite a nurse. Once his lungs had calmed down and his breathing was back under control he snapped out of it, but for several hours he was definitely not himself.
