News/Commentary

Fetterman discharged from hospital after 2-day stay, no signs of seizure or stroke

February 11, 2023 | | Print Article

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a stroke survivor, finally made it out of the hospital Friday after a two-day stay that was prompted by his experiencing lightheadedness during a Senate Democrat retreat, though his troubles are still far from over.

In a statement, his office said he was discharged from George Washington University Hospital after tests determined that he hadn’t suffered yet another stroke or seizure.

“In addition to the CT, CTA, and MRI tests ruling out a stroke, his EEG test results came back normal, with no evidence of seizures. John is looking forward to spending some time with his family and returning to the Senate on Monday,” the statement said.

As previously reported, Fetterman suffered a stroke just days before winning the Pennsylvania Democrat primary election in May of 2022.

(Source: Video screenshot)

According to a profile published by The New York Times on Friday, the effects of the stroke still linger with the Keystone State senator.

“At Senator John Fetterman’s desk in the Senate chamber, there is a newly installed monitor that rises or lowers, depending on whether he sits or stands, and provides closed captioning so he can follow the proceedings. At the center dais, a custom desk stand has been built to accommodate the same technology for when he takes his shifts presiding over the Senate,” the piece reads.

“The sergeant-at-arms has arranged for live audio-to-text transcription for the committees on which Mr. Fetterman serves, and plans to expand the service to all Senate hearings,” it continues.

Why transcription services? Because the stroke from last year left Fetterman with stark auditory processing issues.

“The most evident disability is a neurological condition that impairs his hearing. Mr. Fetterman suffers from auditory processing issues, forcing him to rely primarily on a tablet to transcribe what is being said to him,” the Times notes.

“The hearing issues are inconsistent; they often get worse when he is in a stressful or unfamiliar situation. When it’s bad, Mr. Fetterman has described it as trying to make out the muffled voice of the teacher in the ‘Peanuts’ cartoon, whose words could never be deciphered,” according to the Times.

This latest health scare has reportedly convinced Fetterman’s staff that he needs to take better care of himself, lest his condition worsens.

The premise is that he hasn’t been taking care of himself well enough thus far, instead preferring to prioritize his Senate duties over his mental and physical health.

“[A]ides and confidantes describe his introduction to the Senate as a difficult period, filled with unfamiliar duties that are taxing for someone still in recovery: meetings with constituents, attending caucus and committee meetings, appearing in public at White House events and at the State of the Union address, as well as making appearances in Pennsylvania,” according to the Times.

However, just because Fetterman is trying to be a normal senator doesn’t mean there’s anything normal about his behavior.

The Times notes, for instance, that thanks to his hearing issues, he can’t “partake in the hallway scrums with journalists that are part of most lawmakers’ daily existence in the Capitol.”

Also, he “typically walks around the building with many staffers, in part because he needs assistants to test his technological setup before he enters any room and in part because they’re all still learning their way around the building.”

The result is he barely talks to so-called “journalists,” in part because he often can’t even hear what they’re even saying.

The Times also notes how difficult his transition to a senator has been.

“[H]is adjustment to serving in the Senate has been made vastly more difficult by the strains of his recovery, which left him with a physical impairment and serious mental health challenges that have rendered the transition extraordinarily challenging — even with the accommodations that have been made to help him adapt,” according to the paper.

All this said, Republicans had warned during the 2022 election that Fetterman’s tenure as a senator would be like this if he were elected to office. At the time, the media refused to accept that there was something off about him.

But only now that Fetterman has already been elected and taken his seat in the Senate is the media suddenly comfortable going into detail about his condition.

Or as media critic Steve Krakauer put it in a tweet posted Friday, “NYT is ready to tell the truth about John Fetterman – who remains in the hospital for a 3rd day – now that the truth doesn’t matter.”

Exactly …

Vivek Saxena
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