Rosi EfthimUncategorized

Hillary Clinton apparently had a stroke in 2012, from which she has apparently fully recovered. I tweeted this to Clinton Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri 10 hours ago for confirmation and have not heard back. But the information comes from Clinton’s own health reports released yesterday and signed by her doctor Lisa Bardack, MD.

The word stroke was not used; the term transverse sinus venous thrombosis was. But that’s a stroke. And it was only mentioned in the doctor’s letter dated July 28, 2015, not mentioned at all in the letter dated yesterday. Given Clinton’s collapse on Sunday at the 9/11 Ceremony in NYC, most people will focus on the letter that deals with her pneumonia, not the one 14 months ago. And frankly, most reporters will not know that a transverse sinus venus thrombosis is a stroke. I didn’t. From the online medical site at Johns Hopkins:

What is cerebral venous sinus thrombosis?

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) occurs when a blood clot forms in the brain’s venous sinuses. This prevents blood from draining out of the brain. As a result, blood cells may break and leak blood into the brain tissues, forming a hemorrhage. This chain of events is part of a stroke that can occur in adults and children. It can occur even in newborns and babies in the womb. A stroke can damage the brain and central nervous system. A stroke is serious and requires immediate medical attention. This condition may also be called cerebral sinovenous thrombosis. [emphasis mine]

Let’s be clear about something. When you say stroke, most people picture permanent damage; motor disability, aphasia, cognitive deficit. That is apparently not a factor here. Whatever happened, it appears she made a full recovery. But not knowing the term CVST, I asked a doctor if that’s an actual stroke, or whether maybe the less serious event called a TIA. And he, offering me not a diagnosis of Clinton who he’s never treated, but a definition of what Clinton’s doctor said she had, confirmed the Johns Hopkins definition is correct; Clinton had a stroke. He was surprised; he’d never heard that. Neither had I.

Donald Trump also released some medical info today, and probably only because Clinton did yesterday. His bizarre and self-aggrandizing behavior always raises red flags. This was no different. After his doctor’s bizarre and obsequious Trump health letter – so astonishingly excellent – and hitting Clinton on her health problems, Trump turned his own report into bad infotainment on Dr. Oz, with its built-in audience of women (he’s orange, but he’s not stupid). He gave little actual info on Oz, but came out with a little more – weight, cholesterol, blood sugar etc – this afternoon.

I find Trump’s behavior ridiculous and disqualifying. He’s an unserious person. I have higher expectations for Hillary Clinton; she tells us to expect better of her. And I find the business of her problems of transparency here inconsistent and confusing – and not easy to track down because any search on Clinton’s health history pulls up mostly speculation. Now, on January 1, 2013, Clinton’s doctor told CNN that the blood clot in her head in late 2012 “did not result in any stroke.” CVST is a stroke. But Clinton’s CVST appears to have been found in ‘follow up evaluations.’ (via the 7/28/2015 letter). But here’s the thing: I don’t remember reading anything from then to now saying that her widely-reported concussion was followed by a stroke. A blood clot, yes, not a stroke, and these are different things. Even now, a Google search of Hillary Clinton and stroke pulls up reams of fever swamp claims. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

CVST is right there in the 2015 account; defined specifically and accurately I’m sure. But in a term that most people will skip over. Hiding in plain sight. And it doesn’t turn up at all in the letter everyone will look at. I wish I didn’t have these questions. I really do. At this point, she is my candidate – in 53 days. But I find everything about the last few days troubling; failing to disclose pneumonia on Friday, collapsing Sunday and caught only on bystander video because the press wasn’t told where she was, shifting stories all day Sunday, no trip to the ER, being cagey on when she told her running mate, and now finding out she has a history of stroke.

I held onto this all day because I just couldn’t believe it. Kept thinking I was misreading the Johns Hopkins (and other sources) definitions of CVST. Or that everybody but me knew she had a stroke 4 years ago. I don’t subscribe to the lurid theories of life-threatening disease or undisclosed medical devices hidden under her clothes. But Clinton’s actions don’t reassure me I’m getting the whole truth, either. And so it goes.