Surgeon on candidates’ health: Suppose Trump trips and falls?

By Bob Unruh

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

An award-winning surgeon has distributed a commentary raising questions about the health of a major party’s presidential nominee.

“Imagine, if you would, that tomorrow Donald Trump suffers a concussion. Suppose he trips on a flight of stairs, falling down and hitting his head,” writes Gerard Gianoli, M.D., a member of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, or AAPS.

“The head injury is so severe that he is unconscious for a time and has to be hospitalized for a week. After getting out of the hospital, the Trump campaign tells us that he has fully recovered and that there are no lingering effects of the head trauma. During the following weeks, he is seen in public to wear glasses with a Fresnel lens on one side. He also seems to have trouble maintaining his balance, loses his thoughts in the middle of speeches, and has episodes of spasmodic movements suggestive of seizures.”

He continued: “In this imaginary scenario, would it surprise anyone if the media became skeptical and pressed for release of Mr. Trump’s medical records? Would it surprise anyone if the Clinton campaign made an issue of Mr. Trump’s health status during speeches and in TV ads? Would the media cry ‘foul’ over the Clinton campaign doing so? I think the answers to these questions are self-evident. The media and the Clinton campaign would be all over this like white on rice, and no one would question the appropriateness of their actions.

“To my knowledge, Mr. Trump has had no such issues with his health. However, Mrs. Clinton has had multiple problems – some she has revealed and some that she has not revealed.”

Gianoli, in private practice in Covington, Louisiana, and a faculty member at Tulane University School of Medicine, has pioneered treatments in his specialty areas. He has been granted the American Academy of Otolaryngology’s Honor Award, among others.

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His comments come just as questions are being raised about Clinton’s health. Numerous reports dating back years indicate the Democratic Party nominee for president has health problems, based on her behavior, the unusual lenses she wore in her glasses during the Benghazi hearings in Congress, falls and injuries.

The reports intensified during her campaign for the Democratic Party nomination and only have increased since her party’s convention.

Earlier this week, Jane Orient, M.D., who heads the AAPS, said that until there are complete medical records and an “independent assessment” of Hillary Clinton’s health, “there will be no answers.”

A year ago, Clinton’s campaign released a statement of the candidate’s health from Lisa Bardack, M.D., of the Mount Kisco Medical Group.

It said Clinton had suffered hypothyroidism, seasonal pollen allergies, deep vein thrombosis in 1998 and in 2009, and an elbow fracture and concussion in 2012. Her medications include Armour Thyroid, antihistamines, Vitamin B12 and Coumadin.

But based on Clinton’s quirky recent behavior, captured on video, and other indicators, Orient has more questions.

“Is it conceivable that Hillary supporters would really be voting for Huma Abedin, Clinton’s top aide, or for the First First Husband President, Bill Clinton? The American people are entitled to know the objective medical facts about Secretary Clinton,” said Orient in a commentary published by WND.

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Orient has been in solo medical practice since 1981 and has served as the executive director of the AAPS since 1989. She currently is president of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness.

She bluntly asks, “Is Hillary Clinton medically unfit to serve?”

And a video shows others are asking the same thing:

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Gianoli was pointed in asking: “What do we know about Mrs. Clinton’s health? We know that she has suffered two deep vein thromboses and an episode of cerebral venous thrombosis. Blood spontaneously clotting within one’s veins on three separate occasions is not a good thing. In fact, it is life-threatening. This tells us that she has a hypercoagulable state requiring the use of Coumadin (a ‘blood thinner’) for the rest of her life to try to prevent this from happening again. While Coumadin may prevent future blood clots, it can also lead to life-threatening hemorrhage if she has any future trauma.”

He added: “We also know that she suffered a concussion and, according to her husband, she took 6 months to recover. How do we know she recovered? If she was a high school athlete, she would have had mandatory neuropsychological testing before being allowed to participate in sports again. Given that being the leader of the free world is more important than playing goalie for the local high school, why is the mainstream media not demanding to see Mrs. Clinton’s post-concussion testing?”

He noted her own supporters have talked about her “right transverse venous sinus thrombosis … a blood clot that formed in one of the two major veins that drain blood from the brain.”

The symptoms are “headaches, visual problems, and dizziness/balance problems.”

“We know that Ms. Clinton has had all three of these. Less commonly known are ‘brain fog,’ problems with concentration, and short-term memory problems. Sounds familiar?” he questioned.

A recent Rasmussen poll said 59 percent of voters now believe all major presidential candidates should release at least their most recent medical records to the public.

Orient cited the information that has been made available publicly and said it raises many questions.

“There’s the photograph of Secretary Clinton’s difficulty walking up some steps. Now inability to climb stairs does not necessarily disqualify a person for public office. However, neither she nor people with her apparently anticipated a problem. The people helping her seem to be preventing a fall. Did she simply trip? Or was it a seizure or a stroke?

“Videos widely circulated on the Internet are, if authentic, very concerning. One shows prolonged, inappropriate laughter; another, strange head movements. In a third, she appeared momentarily dazed and confused, and lost her train of thought. Reportedly, she has a volcanic temper. (This is probably not new),” Orient wrote.

When blasted by critics for raising questions, Orient was unfazed, telling WND: “Right, I just have questions – and so should all Americans. There will be no answers without complete medical records and an independent assessment – which would include EEG (electroencephalogram): drug levels; evaluation of memory, executive and cognitive function; and an MRI with DTI (diffusion tensor imaging), which can reveal evidence of traumatic brain injury missed on standard MRI.”

She continued: “I am not speculating about psychiatric diagnoses. The findings and suggested differential diagnoses are neurologic, and related to risk factors we know she has (concussion and thrombotic problems).”

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WND reported earlier on the other evidence cited by Orient.

One image shows Clinton getting help to climb stairs. It happened during a February event in South Carolina.

hillary-clinton-staircase-600

There also have been videos that have raised questions.

One appears to show her losing her concentration while speaking.

She simply comes to a halt and stares at the audience.

See the video:

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And a July 21 video posted on YouTube shows Clinton’s head suddenly turning and shaking vigorously for several seconds.

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Blogger Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit headlined it, “Wow!” Did Hillary Clinton Just Suffer a Seizure on Camera?”

“The poor woman is in worse shape than we thought,” he wrote.

Fox News medical “A-Team” also raised questions.

Dr. Marc Siegel noted: “In 2008 … I looked over a thousand pages of John McCain’s records because of a melanoma he had 10 years ago. What about Hillary? In 2009, a severe fall. She breaks her elbow. In 2011, she boards a plane, falls. In 2012, she has a severe concussion which Bill Clinton says took her six months to recover from.”

He continued: “Then she ends up with a blood clot in the brain and a lifetime of blood thinners. Just that point alone – if she’s prone to falling, you can see from that picture up there that it looked like she can barely get upstairs without two people carrying her. Guess what if she falls and hits her head? She’ll get a blood clot.”

And Dr. David Samadi added: “The picture going up the stairs speaks a million words. Is she fatigued? Is she dehydrated? One of the main reasons she fell in 2012 and had the concussions was severe dehydration. They’re holding her and going up the stairs. So she may be really dehydrated, she may have arthritis, she may have back pain, she may have fallen again. We don’t know. There are questions that are unanswered. What we know today is she’s on thyroid medication, she suffers from hypothyroid, low thyroid, that can cause fatigue and gaining weight and all of that.”

Siegel said: “I think a traumatic brain injury with symptoms down the road is very, very likely here especially since she had a blood clot on her brain. As David mentioned, that could lead to a seizure problem.”

Clinton also has suffered repeated episodes of uncontrolled coughing during her campaigning.

 

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.


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