25 October 2022 — 1939 mdt
The Fetterman-Oz debate, and notable
politicians who recovered from serious strokes
By James Conner
At 1800 MDT this evening, Pennsylvania candidates for the U.S. Senate, Democrat John Fetterman, PA’s lieutenant governor, and physician Mehmet Oz, the carpetbagging Republican from New Jersey, begam their first, and last, debate.
Because the six-foot-eight Fetterman is still recovering from a serious stroke he suffered just before the primary election in May — he’s still having trouble processing information from language he hears, but not from language he sees — the format may be the first of a kind for a political debate.
…to accommodate Mr. Fetterman’s recovery from a stroke in May, the campaigns agreed to add something to the set: two large monitors, a few feet above the heads of the two moderators. Professional typists who usually create closed captions for the hearing-impaired will transcribe in real time the questions and Dr. Oz’s statements for Mr. Fetterman to read.
Mr. Fetterman speaks “intelligently without cognitive deficits,” according to a statement by his doctor that the campaign released on Oct. 15. But he continues to have symptoms of what his doctor called an auditory processing disorder that “can come across as hearing difficulty.”
Dr. Oz, of course, will also see the monitors, and viewers may catch glimpses of them when the moderators appear on camera. [Source: NYTimes.]
It’s the same format that would be employed if one of the candidates were deaf.
Oz does not need to make an issue of Fetterman’s health. Voters know the story, and viewers of the debate will judge for themselves whether Fetterman still has the right stuff to serve in the Senate. Check the polls at FiveThirtyEight in a few days to get a sense of how the debate affected Fetterman’s prospects of winning the election. Right now he’s ahead by two to four points with approximately 10 percent undecided.
More than a few politicians and elected officials suffered strokes, and many, such as President Eisenhower in 1957, and in 2022, Democratic senators Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, recovered fully. Some, such as President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, did not.
A stroke was not Eisenhower’s only medical woe in office. In 1955, while golfing in Colorado, he suffered a massive heart attack that kept him hospitalized for six weeks. Noting his coronary was not diagnosed as swiftly as it should have been, some historians believe Eisenhower received substandard medical care. Eisenhower wrote several books after leaving the White House. He died of heart failure in 1969.
Medical care has improved immensely since Wilson and Eisenhower suffered their strokes.So, what exactly happened to Fetterman? According to Scientific American, Fetterman suffered an ischemic stroke, an obstruction to a blood vessel. Part of his brain was deprived of oxygen long enough that brain damage occurred. The result: difficulty in processing auditory input.
Five months later Fetterman sat down for an interview with NBC News where he used closed captioning technology to help manage the auditory processing issues caused by the stroke. “I sometimes will hear things in a way that’s not perfectly clear,” Fetterman told NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns. “So I use captioning so I’m able to see what you’re saying.” [Source: Scientific American.]
Fetterman’s now in his fifth month of recovery. According to what I’ve read, he’ll continue improving, perhaps at a slower pace, for a few more months. Whether he will recover his full power of auditory processing cannot be known at this point.
Woodrow Wilson’s 1919 stroke (probably his fourth) was far more serious than Fetterman’s, occurring a century ago when medical care for brain injuries was primitive compared to today’s.
Wilson suffered a major ischemic stroke on October 2, 1919, which left him incapacitated. What was probably his fourth and most devastating stroke was diagnosed and treated by his friend and personal physician, Admiral Cary Grayson.
Grayson, who had tremendous personal and professional loyalty to Wilson, kept the severity of the stroke hidden from Congress, the American people, and even the president himself. During a cabinet briefing, Grayson formally refused to sign a document of disability and was reluctant to address the subject of presidential succession.
Wilson was essentially incapacitated and hemiplegic [paralyzed on one side of the body], yet he remained an active president and all messages were relayed directly through his wife, Edith. Patient-physician confidentiality superseded national security amid the backdrop of friendship and political power on the eve of a pivotal juncture in the history of American foreign policy.
It was in part because of the absence of Woodrow Wilson’s vocal and unwavering support that the United States did not join the League of Nations and distanced itself from the international stage. The League of Nations would later prove powerless without American support and was unable to thwart the rise and advance of Adolf Hitler. Only after World War II did the United States assume its global leadership role and realize Wilson’s visionary, yet contentious, groundwork for a Pax Americana. [Source: National Library of Medicine.]
It was not until the 25th Amendment was ratified in 1967 that there was a direct Constitutional way to transfer to the vice president the powers of office held by an incapacitated president who refuses to resign or is physically incapable of resigning. The only remedy during Wilson’s tenure was impeachment and conviction, treating his stroke as a high crime and misdemeanor. He should have resigned, but politicians in high office almost never do. The malady that makes them unfit to serve also makes them incapable of stepping aside.