'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E’s off the twig! 'E’s kicked the bucket, 'e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-SENATOR!!
Well, no. He’s not dead. What’s an inescapable conclusion however is that he’s significantly worse off than he was pre-“event”, when he could barely walk with assistance, was prone to falling, and froze up for long stretches. The odds of him materially engaging in Senate business, contributing to letters calling for state disaster relief etc. are vanishingly small.
We may eventually hear that he’s been discharged from rehab and is “recovering at home”, or even see him being wheeled temporarily into the Senate chambers for applause and tributes, but don’t count on that either.
I do not believe so; I’ve not ever seen anything that indicates that he does. He had polio as a child, which continued to have an impact on his mobility throughout his life.
Not that I know of. I was asking if a neurological condition could present as cardiac arrest to the EMTs.
FWIW, if I’m keeping track accurately, the sum total of data is:
An E911 call to his address stating cardiac arrest and CPR
3 statements from colleagues that spoke to him
2 photos
1 attending physician statement given second-hand
There’s plenty of room to fit any of our speculation to these data points. I say this as a way of admitting I have no idea what happened and am just speculating.
I don’t trust Scott Jennings’ claims about speaking to McConnell; from what I’ve observed of him on CNN he’s a totally shameless shill for whatever the party line of the day happens to be.
So far, McConnell’s camp has done a pretty good job running out the clock. Beshear made that last ultimatum to McConnell’s camp a week ago, essentially throwing it at a brick wall for all the meaningful response it got.
Meanwhile, @Folacin posted a rock-solid article about a paramedic’s view of what CPR really is and how that reality relates to the likelihood McConnell ever returns to the Senate. Interestingly, the article was written over a month ago – so not in response to any of the “proof of life” photos or other recent public information.
One of the interesting things among several: The author points out that, based on the recordings of the paramedics’ dispatch … McConnell DID indeed technically die at home but was revived later:
Per recorded 911 dispatch, Mitch McConnell was found unconscious in his residence. An ambulance was dispatched. I’ve listened to the recording. In fact, I listened to CBS listening to the recording as well, and they got it wrong.
Every outlet reporting on it got it wrong.
At the start of the recording you hear a female dispatcher giving the dispatch information to the crew. The next part you hear from the recording is the CREW, not the dispatcher, stating “CPR in progress, start a supervisor.”
That is the crew at the scene, telling dispatch two things. The first is that this is now a cardiac arrest. We do this so our dispatcher can mark the time for documentation. The second thing being done is asking for more hands. Working an arrest is a lot of work; sometimes you just need someone competent to be there to help.
The dispatcher then starts a supervisor to the scene and informs the supervisor that it is an arrest. The dispatcher can say this with confidence because the crew on scene stated clearly that CPR is in progress. You don’t do that to the living. Not if you want to keep them living.
…
When someone is in cardiac arrest, and you determine that they have no pulse and they are not breathing, that means it is time to take over for their failing body part. You place them flat on their back. If they are on a soft surface like a couch or bed, you try to be as gentle as possible when pulling them to the floor, but currently they are dead. You dropping them to the floor won’t make them dead-er.
Re last post, I’m wondering if it will turn out that they were just about to do CPR and then, after the radio message, realized it was not needed. I don’t doubt Nicholas J Orcutt’s experience, but communications shortcuts in D.C. could be a little different from where he worked.
If McConnell had chest compressions, one would think his wife would have returned from China immediately, and, well, McConnell would probably be deceased.
Disclaimer: I was an EMT for about 8 years before a back injury forced me to retire from it. I operated in Indiana and Kentucky, so it’s entirely possible that the protocols I performed under may be outdated, and it’s entirely possible that the protocols are vastly different from DC.
That said:
If a call goes out over the radio that CPR is in progress, it has better actually be in progress. Everything that’s said on the radio, everything written down, everything in a report are legal documents that can be used in court in the case of a lawsuit, and if you state that CPR is in progress and it really isn’t, you can have your certification pulled, and in extreme cases can result in prison time.
If CPR is announced, and the patient does wake up, the technicians on-scene had better relay that info over the radio. The patient is going to the hospital anyway, and the facility needs to know exactly what has transpired, and when.
So, to reiterate, if CPR is announced, it better be happening. If it isn’t, that needs to be relayed.
Neither as I doubt Rep. Granger was working remotely.
I think it was fine for her to be out sick for six months after working on the job for twenty-eight years.
While the chances of her recovering enough to go back were low, stranger things have happened. Prognosis is not an exact science.
Now, in these cases, McConnell and Granger, the missing legislators were Republicans in mostly GOP states, and it happens that the votes they missed were ones where they often would have voted in a different way than I would have wanted. But if they were Democrats, I would have to say the same about someone gravely ill after decades of service.
Most Democrats who disagree with me would also want an long-term-illness Democrat, from a Democratic-leaning state or district, to leave. Maybe that would be the most honorable route, assuming they are mentally sharp enough to realize it.
I wouldn’t engage in a political attack against them for their weakness.
