On Sunday, an “Overheated” Hillary Stumbled or Fainted at a 911 Ceremony.

by Mish

Hours later, came news flash Hillary’s Doctor Discloses Pneumonia Diagnosis Made Last Friday: Questions Abound.

Since then, a video by Dr. Ted Noel has made the rounds. Dr. Noel makes a seemingly convincing case Hillary has Late Stage Parkinson’s disease.

Snopes says Noel’s claim is false. I question the analysis of Snopes.

Some Mish readers who are medical doctors have some interesting comments.

Late Stage Parkinson’s?

In the above video, Dr. Ted Noel makes a seemingly convincing case Hillary has Late Stage Parkinson’s disease.

My first thought on watching the video was “Wow”. My second thought was “Wow, I wish Dr. Noel did not put a political spin on things.”

Snopes Weighs In

Snopes says the montage of photos and video clips are nothing more than Shaky Diagnosis.

Snopes concluded the story was “false”. Snopes ends with this paragraph:

In closing, we wish to make it clear what our aim has been in this analysis. We have not tried to make the case that Hillary Clinton does not have Parkinson’s disease (in point of fact, we don’t think that case even needs making). Rather, we have shown that what Ted Noel did in this video is systematically misrepresent perfectly ordinary and explicable phenomena as “Parkinson’s disease symptoms,” and his motivation for doing so was purely political.

False or Inconclusive?

I am generally highly supportive of Snopes. But How the hell can they possibly make the claim the story is false, when all they did was make a case that Noel’s presentation was politically motivated.

Politically Motivated Snopes?

Since Snopes is not a medical doctor, and since Snopes explicitly stated “We have not tried to make the case that Hillary Clinton does not have Parkinson’s disease (in point of fact, we don’t think that case even needs making)” one has to wonder if Snopes itself is politically motivated!

Snopes should have labeled the evidence “Inconclusive“, not false.

Perfectly Ordinary?

I am not a medical doctor but bug-eyed facial expressions and cough attacks lasting months coupled with stumbling and stuttering and exaggerated head motions getting progressively worse, all by the same person, hardly seem “perfectly ordinary” as Snopes claims.

Certified Opinion

I am not qualified to comment on the likelihood of Parksinson’s. Since Snopes did not bother to consult experts, they are not qualified either. So how can they label the story “false”?

On the other hand, I am qualified to recognize bullsheet. I do that every day for a living.

My certified opinion is “Late Stage Lying, Mid Stage Lying, and Early Stage Lying” by the Hillary campaign.

Here are some comments from medical doctors. Some were posted publicly on my blog others in private emails to me.

Comments From M.D Brody

I know of two recent instances of chronic cough treated with cough medicine and antibiotics. Over a period of time the symptoms persisted.

Eventually a CT lung scan was performed that showed lung cancer. The test was requested two years ago and was not authorized by insurance.

I think a CT scan of chest and lungs in medically indicated. It will either be clear or show pathology. It can answer speculation. Hillary, herself should want to know

L. Brody, M. D.

Comments from M.D. Simon

I have followed your outstanding writing and cogent views since 2005+- and found you were the only one I read to call the housing bust and the bust in the economy.

After an epileptic seizure an unfortunate victim is barely conscious. It would fit with past history of fall, concussion and scarring on the brain causing a seizure disorder. There is no way any one would be told that, press or public.

She was lifted and carried into theLimo by her “escorts”. That is the only real information available. While not enough to make a diagnosis it is concerning for anyone’s else. “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”.

Very few people are objective, including Snopes and Dr. Noel. I have to agree with Snopes on one thing: without a hands on evaluation by a qualified Neurologist, we are all making “armchair” diagnoses.

Sadly, unless Hilliary releases the medical record of a Neurologist’s evaluation, it is all non-first hand information and politically charged.

Here is a very reliable and valuable resource on Parkinson’s Symptoms I use for further information on many consults I do, when approached by a friend or patient.

The other source is the National Institute of Health: What is Parkinson’s Disease?

I have great concern and will watch this all unfold. I will try to remain objective. Personally, on a non-objective basis, a friend of mine has noticed there are very few candidate bumper stickers on people’s cars.

People don’t want to reveal their position because we have become so polarized by the choices.

Best wishes as always

Dr. Jim Simon, M.D.

Comments From M.D. George

Hi Mish

I’m a retired MD, family doctor, ABFP certified 3 times (tests were routine every 6 yrs), and a loyal reader.

Please see this article on subdural hematoma, a clot between brain and skull, usually from some impact.

Note these clots are more likely if taking anticoagulants (blood thinners). It makes zero sense to me that Hillary would be on any blood thinner for her prior clot. They either resorb spontaneously or are removed surgically via a bore hole in the skull, but blood thinners would make them worse. I feel this is elementary to MD’s. It seems to me she likely has some other undisclosed problem.

The type of blood thinner is not stated. It might be coumadin (warfarin) derivative, aspirin, or possibly some health supplements. All of these are usually stopped for surgeries.

Her cough timeline, beautifully summarized by you, is way too long for pneumonia. Quite a lot of conditions can cause coughing spells – lung, heart, neurological, esophageal, e.g. saliva down the wrong tube – I have no clear idea on this.

Anticoagulants are used for some cardiac conditions e.g. atrial fibrillation, and some neurological conditions e.g. transient ischemic attacks.

Best regards, George

Comments From M.D. Zadeh

Hi Mish

It looks like you got two doctors commenting and now you will have a third. While I don’t disagree with the doctor’s opinions given what was presented, I think some of the facts presented to the public are in question.

Let me go over some basic things. When you have a blood clot in the brain, the biggest danger is that blood flow to that section of the brain is cut off and brain tissue dies; that is a stroke. If there is a blood clot causing symptoms and the clot gets dissolved or breaks away such that blood flow is not permanently interrupted, that is called a transient ischemic (without oxygen) attack or TIA or mini stroke.

However, there are also very small strokes that destroy brain tissue at the microscopic level. Those are called lacunar infarctions and they often result in a type of dementia called vascular dementia. Not to get too technical, but vascular dementia also is overlapped by a process called Lewy Body dementia which is basically a mixture of Alzheimer’s dementia and Parkinson’s.

I think people pointing to Parkinson’s don’t get what Lewy body and vascular dementia are: forms of dementia with Parkinsonian features that wax and wane depending on blood flow. If there is diminished blood flow to the dopamine producing parts of the brain: Parkinson symptoms can occur but vanish once blood flow is restored. Hilary wouldn’t have gotten through the election campaign with full blown Parkinson’s, but she could have gotten by with hiding early vascular/Lewy body dementia IMO, and that is what I suspect is going on with her.

The thing I have told people is once you have blood clots gumming up your brain, things don’t get better. This is a progressive problem and as someone who has extensively studied coagulation, the notion put out by HRC’s staff that you put someone on blood thinners, the clot dissolves because of the blood thinner, and a person has a full recovery is complete baloney. A disruption in blood flow to the brain is going to be followed by continued disruptions in blood flow, and I know of no treatment to stop it in a case like HRC’s that involves smaller blood vessels.

When you have a neurovascular issue causing dysphagia (difficulty swallowing which is what causes her to cough), seizures (the reason for the staff caring around the Valium or diazepam pen), and weakness, those are REALLY bad signs. IMO she is a ticking time bomb to have a major and debilitating stroke.

With Hiliary’s “pneumonia”, a doctor saying so is completely inadequate. How was it diagnosed? Was an acid fast stain done? Were mycoplasma titers or cultures performed? What was the level of cold agglutins? Furthermore, if HRC was diagnosed with mycoplasma or walking pneumonia, why was she allowed to come in contact with a child when this disease is known to be contagious? And what did her chest x-ray look like? She should have had one to be diagnosed with pneumonia.

Bear in mind that when you have weakness with pneumonia, it usually is due to dehydration and causes orthostasis (dizziness when getting up). If HRC were going from sitting to standing and needed support, I could buy the dehydration/pneumonia story. But she was already standing and then went limp. That is most likely a neurological problem not a hydration one.

People should be clamoring to see the chest x-ray and lab results for HRC. To me the most damning finding would be a normal white blood cell count, a negative acid fast stain, normal tiitre ratio of cold agglutins, and an infiltrate in the middle lobe of the right lung. That would be strongly suggestive that HRC has aspiration pneumonitis due to dysphagia from an underlying neurovascular issue and that the walking pneumonia diagnosis was pure bunk. But I would be shocked if we see the lab or X-ray results.

Bottom line though is I said HRC had serious medical issues to someone a month ago, and recent events have fortified that opinion. If the Dems handle HRC’s health issues as a conspiracy or a malicious Trump plot versus truthful full disclosure, IMO they are giving the election to Trump. For the Dems to win in November, they need to get a new candidate yesterday.

Joseph Zadeh

Comments from M.D. Sugarman

Dear Mr. Shedlock:

I am a cardiologist with internal medicine training at Mass General. I would like to accept your invitation to offer my two cents’ worth regarding Hillary’s pneumonia.

First of all, I think the diagnosis of pneumonia is very convenient, as an excuse for the symptoms. However I have doubts as to the reliability of this conclusion. The gold standard for diagnosing pneumonia remains a chest x-ray. For someone as prominent as Hillary, I would not be surprised to see a chest CT or a bronchoscopy, or both. However, the diagnosis was made at the patient’s home, which does not have facilities for any of these diagnostic tests. Nobody makes a diagnosis of pneumonia based only on exam in the 21st century; this really hasn’t been done since the 1950’s, back when thyroid disease was treated with Armour thyroid extract (another anachronistic treatment Hillary is receiving). I am concerned, in fact, that she may be having pulmonary emboli. If she has a hypercoagulable state, responsible for a transverse sinus (brain) thrombosis as well as multiple deep vein thromboses, and if she is not compliant with her Coumadin regimen, she could be forming clots in her legs which travel to the lungs, and could mimic the symptoms of pneumonia. This is potentially life-threatening. At a minimum she needs a chest x-ray, and a d-dimer blood test to exclude pulmonary emboli.

One of the other questions raised was whether her doctor is incompetent or hiding something. I have never met Dr. Bardack, but she has had superb training at NYU medical school and Cornell Univ for internal medicine residency. They don’t accept low-quality physicians into these institutions and the training is top-notch. I would bet dollars to donuts that the Dr. is quite competent. Whether she is hiding something is a different story. The doctor owes her allegiance to the patient, and has no obligation to release any information to any third party. In fact, there is a law, called HIPAA, which forbids release of any information without the expressed permission of the patient. Hiding something at the patient’s request is not only permitted; it is considered ethical, at least from the doctors’ perspective.

I have two other brief points. First, this is a little reminiscent of when lying President Nixon was embroiled in Watergate, and he got pneumonia. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. Second, I have to say I’m no fan of Hillary’s, but I have to admire her guts. Here she is, sick, coughing her head off, and feeling crummy, yet she still insists on doing as much as she can to see that the good guys (from her standpoint) win, and the bad guys lose. Sort of like Kirk Gibson pinch hitting in the 88 World Series with two bad legs.

Anyway, that’s my opinion. I enjoy reading your column. I find it very insightful. I was saddened by the loss of your first wife, and I made a donation to your ALS charity. I’m glad you found another soul mate.

Fell free to email me back if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Daniel I. Sugarman, MD

Second Video From Dr. Ted Noel

Here is a second video from Dr. Ted Noel.

The Last Word

Mike “Mish” Shedlock