Is it just the infirmary of age, or does he have some illness that makes walking near impossible? I have known people who were 90+ who were still mobile (they generally needed canes though).
Is he sick with some particular condition or is it just a total breakdown of joints/bones/muscles due to age?
He seemed to be in decent shape in the 1996 election and he was in his early 70s at the time. But that was apparently 20 years ago.
At a guess, I would say complications from the war. He was badly wounded and can’t use one of his arms. It’s probably caught up to him.
Yeah but he was doing fine in the 1990s when he was in his 70s.
The 1990s were quite some time ago and being in one’s 90s is way different than being in one’s 70s.
My father-in-law is 92. He was a carpenter, and was as strong and vigorous as anyone I’ve ever seen.
A few years ago arthritis caught up with him. He can’t lift his arms, he’s permanently hunched over, he shuffles because he can’t pick up his feet. He can go about 20 feet using a walker.
Dole could have arthritis, he could have balance problems, he could have Parkinson’s disease (like GHW Bush, who now uses a wheelchair), he could have weakness in one of his legs because of a minor stroke. News stories going back at least three years note that he has used a wheelchair. Many of those stories use the word “frail” which seems to be as good a reason as any.
Nvm
“Dole has been a staunch advocate for disability rights, as he himself has suffered from debilitating injuries to his arm from wounds sustained during World War II.
According to examinations by medics following the battle, Dole had sustained the following injuries: a shattered right shoulder, fractured vertebrae in his neck and spine, paralysis from the neck down, metal shrapnel throughout his body and a damaged kidney. The medics examining Dole thought him unlikely to survive.
Dole has been in an out of hospitals in recent years. In 2009, Dole was hospitalized for a leg infection that required multiple surgeries and a skin graft to repair. He also spent ten months at Walter Reed a year later after suffering pneumonia following knee surgery. And in the early 1990s, Dole underwent successful surgery for prostate cancer.”
So …
The man had a lot of disabilities and physical challenges going into old age and he is now 92 and has had multiple surgeries and hospitalizations. Not too many, especially men, make it into their nineties period. None do without loss of muscle mass and strength and physical capacity. I can tell you I was shocked at how much muscle mass I lost (at age 55) during just one bout of influenza … pneumonia and surgeries while in his late 80s to early 90s in someone who has already been disabled long term? I’m impressed that he is alive at all let alone apparently pretty cognitively intact.
TEN MONTHS in the hospital? Wow.
I’d guess that was mostly the physical rehab wing or a “skilled nursing facility” (SNF).
I don’t understand the OP’s puzzlement over this. Most people Dole’s age are already dead.
Yeah, but they’re in caskets or urns, not wheelchairs.
What kind of wheelchair? One of those fancy ones? Maybe he’s just lazy 
Both my Granddad and Father were “fit” until the last two or three years of their lives. I didn’t live near them, so it seemed as if things (with their health, that is) went downhill quickly, to me.
Remember too that people who are using wheelchairs when you see them aren’t necessarily confined to wheelchairs. Half the people in my family could use a wheelchair when we’re out and about (instead they just don’t go out much) but they can walk just fine. They just might not be able to stand as long as needed or walk as far as needed for whatever we’re doing.