Doctors Speculate Democratic Senate Nominee May Be Hiding True Health Condition

One week ago, millions of Pennsylvanians chose their party’s nominees. Despite suffering a stroke hours before, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman cruised to victory in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

Currently recovering at home (on the advice of his doctors and wife), Fetterman says he is “feeling great.”

However, The New York Times reports that the populist Democrat, who promised to campaign in all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties to win over Trump voters, may have serious complications based on the information provided by his medical team.

It is public knowledge that surgeons at Lancaster General Hospital installed a pacemaker after Fetterman’s stroke. The stroke, reported to be minor, was caused by a blood clot linked to atrial fibrillation (AFib). According to WebMD, strokes linked to AFib are twice as likely to be deadly or debilitating.

While not proof, medical experts told The Times that they suspect Fetterman’s health condition is more serious than the campaign has let on.

As The New York Times reports:

Dr. Elaine Wan, an associate professor of medicine in cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology at Columbia University Medical Center, said defibrillators — which always come with pacemakers — are used to prevent sudden death. They usually are implanted in people with weakened heart muscle, or those who survived an episode in which the heart stopped, or in people with a genetic predisposition for sudden cardiac death…

Dr. Rajat Deo, an associate professor of medicine and a cardiac electrophysiologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, agreed about the use of defibrillators and said he shared Dr. Wan’s suspicion that Mr. Fetterman has a damaged heart.

Wan went so far as to tell The Times that “[Fetterman] is at risk for sudden cardiac death. For someone on the campaign trail that might raise concerns.”

Fetterman’s wife, Gisele, revealed that staff made a surgical incision near his groin (possibly a thrombectomy) to remove the clot.

John Hopkins’ website explains that surgical thrombectomies are often performed on patients with very large clots or ones that caused severe damage.

The Times adds:

Dr. Lee Schwamm, a stroke specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, said doctors do a thrombectomy only when a large artery in the brain is blocked…

“These strokes tend to be very severe,” Dr. Schwamm said. “He is fortunate that he went to a hospital that could treat it.”

(H/T Hot Air)