CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner said on Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appeared to have a seizure when he froze and was unresponsive after being asked if he plans to run for re-election at a press conference.
Reiner said, “The Senator has had a really precipitous decline in his health over the last several months, and it’s playing out very publicly. So, my heart goes out to him.”
He continued, “What I see basically is the senator becoming perhaps a little bit confused, and he stares off to the side, sort of to the upper side and is unable to speak for about ten seconds. That looks like he’s having a type of seizure called an absence seizure.”
Reiner added, “The Senator had a really traumatic brain injury in March when he fell. And about 10% of people who have a big enough injury to be hospitalized after a head injury like that will subsequently have things like a seizure. And that’s what it looks like to me. They basically are mirror images as the one he had about five weeks ago. They basically are mirror images.”
He concluded, “I would be very surprised if the senator has not had a thorough neurologic evaluation. The folks who work on Capitol Hill, the House and members of the Senate have a really wonderfully sophisticated group of doctors who work basically for them. So I’m sure the senator has availed himself of their expertise, and they’ve probably done a very deep dive into why the last episode five weeks ago occurred. So, I think that’s why maybe there’s no apparent sense of urgency now.”
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