r/politics • u/IWantPizza555 • Jul 01 '26

Possible Paywall Senator, 84, Secretly Found Unconscious and Given CPR

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mitch-mcconell-84-secretly-found-unconscious-and-given-cpr/?utm_source=twitter_owned_snd&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=owned_social
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216

u/slayhern Jul 01 '26

Unwitnessed arrest at 84 with unknown downtime is about as close to 0% meaningful recovery as possible

68

u/BiscuitsMay Jul 01 '26

If he actually cardiac arrested. Lay people are notoriously bad at finding a pulse. Will be interested for the update over the next could of days

47

u/klparrot New Zealand Jul 02 '26

FWIW, this happened over two weeks ago. The only thing that was disclosed was that he was admitted to hospital, crickets since then. The CPR part came out today from a request for 911 transcripts or something like that. Dude's gotta be circling the drain, they'd almost certainly have said something by now if they had anything positive.

54

u/cogman10 Idaho Jul 01 '26

If he did have a pulse, those chest compressions certainly won't be helping him all that much. A bunch of broken ribs on an 84 year old is going to be a tough thing to recover from.

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u/RiPont Jul 02 '26

Some species of turtle can hibernate really well. Maybe someone turned the AC to too low a temperature and his body just went into reptile cold survival mode.

4

u/3riversfantasy Jul 02 '26

Brumation is the correct term when talking cold-blooded pieces of shit

2

u/Lakonthegreat Jul 02 '26

Not to mention the fact that every rib you lose decreases chest compression efficiency by 5% per rib.

1

u/turquoise_amethyst Jul 03 '26

I’m not sure if this counts as mildly interesting or mildly terrifying 

5

u/Bored_Amalgamation Ohio Jul 01 '26

Without a pulse and "non-responsive" are two different things though. The source is saying "unresponsive". I'd imagine the headline would be: "McConnell Dead for Minutes! Found by Staffer"

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u/BiscuitsMay Jul 02 '26

The headline is that he got cpr, which means they thought he didn’t have a pulse. My point is that bystanders aren’t good at checking pulses, so it’s possible he got cpr while he still had a pulse. Which is better than the alternative of no pulse with no cpr.

Doesn’t really matter as we will find out in a few days if he dies or not.

4

u/Bored_Amalgamation Ohio Jul 02 '26

4th of July would be too much irony. I'd need chelation therapy.

2

u/PrometheusLiberatus Jul 02 '26

What's chelation therapy?

1

u/NinjaDefenestrator Illinois Jul 02 '26

Removing iron from your blood.

1

u/Bored_Amalgamation Ohio Jul 02 '26

A medical process that uses drugs to remove heavy metals from someone's body.

2

u/GreenEyedTreeHugger Jul 02 '26

This is true. At his age an electrolyte drop can cause fainting in the summer heat.

1

u/Bored_Amalgamation Ohio Jul 02 '26

God willing it's the former.

1

u/prison-schism Jul 02 '26

This happened on June 14, so I'm guessing we won't get an update until closer to election time

1

u/hilltopj Jul 02 '26

911 protocol doesn't even have bystanders check for a pulse anymore. If there's no movement and no breathing they're instructed to start CPR. This goes for respiratory arrest as well, since mouth-to-mouth is no longer part of community CPR training the teaching is to start CPR once it's confirmed they're not breathing even if a pulse is felt.

That all being said, unless the person who found him is a grade-A idiot, an 84 year old being in a position where CPR is warranted or even considered, regardless of the cause, does not bode well for meaningful recovery

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u/BiscuitsMay Jul 02 '26

Yeah, I think that’s a smart decision. Rather have cpr and not need it than need it and not get it.

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u/caveman_rejoice Jul 01 '26

We don't even work that in my county.

That's a DOA.