Pneumonia doesn't make a candidate unfit for office. Neither does fainting. Or being on Coumadin.
Does anyone remember Dick Cheney's medical history? This doctor analyzes it (with source links and a demarcation of fact and his opinion.)
The New York Times reports on his 4th heart attack which occurred during the Florida recount in 2000 (it wasn't diagnosed as such until later.) During his stint as Vice President, The Times reports Cheney had these medical issues:
While vice president, he developed additional problems, and each time he received the latest technology. For example, he had angioplasty to unblock coronary arteries; stents to keep them open; and surgery to repair aneurysms, or ballooning of arteries, behind both knees. A new combination device was implanted: a pacemaker to detect and correct abnormal heart rhythms, and a defibrillator to give a powerful electrical shock to stop potentially fatal ones.
In a 2013 interview with NPR, Cheney said:
I was able to live with chronic heart disease for 35 years and still lead a very active, very normal, some people say abnormal, career, but able to function at a high level in spite of the disease. And that’s because of all the developments that are now available in terms of medicine that have made that possible.
In 2002, then President George W Bush fainted while eating a pretzel, a month after having had skin lesions removed from his face (the two events were not related):
The doctor said the president had complained Saturday and Sunday that he was "a little off his game" and thought he was coming down with a head cold.
"He had not been feeling well the last couple of days," Tubb said, adding that Bush had exercised rigorously Saturday but had a lighter workout Sunday....
The episode is the second medical incident involving the president in about a month. In early December, the White House acknowledged that Bush had several benign skin lesions removed from his face.
In 1992, then President George H.W.Bush fainted at a state dinner in Japan and threw up.
One person who attended the dinner and saw the incident at close range said the President "turned white as a sheet," rolled his head to the left, and was clearly fainting before being helped to the floor. "It all happened very, very fast," said the guest, who refused to be identified by name.
In addressing the Press, his media spokesman said:
"During the dinner tonight at approximately 8:20 P.M.," he said "the President slumped over in his chair, was feeling weak and was helped to the floor by Secret Service agents. The President recovered in a few minutes and remarked to the agents, 'I just wanted to get a little attention.' "
Referring to the President's physician, he also said: "Dr. Lee does not feel there's any special monitoring required. All aspects of the examination indicate that it is a common case of the flu."
A few months earlier, Bush had a thyroid episode with atrial fibrillation:
[A]n undiagnosed thyroid condition caused his heart to begin beating rapidly and uncontrollably, a condition called atrial fibrillation.
Joe Biden has had two brain aneurysms.
Biden's brush with death came two decades ago, just months after he gave up his own campaign for president. Biden, who had suffered headaches for weeks, found himself with a headache so severe that he lay down in a fetal position, then passed out for five hours. Upon awakening, he made it to a hospital, where doctors discovered a ruptured aneurysm -- a condition so severe that a priest said he was called in to administer the last rites.
.. He suffers occasional back pain, as well as chronic sinusitis and severe seasonal allergies dating back to childhood, when asthma was diagnosed. Earlier this year, he underwent surgery to correct the sinus condition, a relatively common and minor procedure.
In 2006, he suffered an episode of atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat. He underwent a stress test -- technically known as a stress echocardiogram -- and doctors concluded that the fibrillation was a lone episode with no underlying heart disease. They chalked it up to Biden's busy lifestyle and lack of exercise. After that episode, the senator began taking aspirin as a blood thinner.
He also takes Zocor to control cholesterol, Claritin for allergies and Flomax to aid urination.
George H.W. Bush is 92 today. Dick Cheney (with his 5 heart attacks, atherosclerosis and transplanted heart) is 75. John McCain is 80. Bernie Sanders is 75. Joe Biden is 73.
Donald Trump is 70 and Hillary is 68.
