Questions about Mitch McConnell’s health are only growing after his office insisted the longtime Kentucky senator is working hard to return to Washington “soon”, despite the fact that he hasn’t even been medically cleared to leave his rehabilitation facility.
Now, one prominent physician says the public is being sold an unrealistic picture of McConnell’s condition.
Dr. Anahita Dua, a vascular surgeon, blasted the messaging coming from McConnell’s office and fellow Senate Republicans, warning that the 84-year-old’s recovery could take months—not weeks—and arguing that the pressure to portray him as actively working may be doing more harm than good.
McConnell’s office released a statement Monday saying he is eager to return to both the Senate and Kentucky “soon.” At the same time, the Office of the Attending Physician confirmed for the first time that McConnell remains in a rehabilitation facility undergoing a “strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation” and has not yet been medically cleared to leave.
To Dua, those two messages don’t add up. “Rehab for frailty, where you need to learn to walk and stuff again, it takes time to build up strength. It is in months. That’s how long it takes,” she said, according to The Daily Beast. “Months of exercises and constant rehab, sometimes up to three or four hours a day.”
She questioned why McConnell and those around him appear to be creating the expectation that he’ll be back at work in short order.
“Why are we having this ridiculous expectation of him, and why is he portraying this ridiculous expectation that he’s gonna get back to it?” Dua asked.
The concerns don’t stop there.
McConnell’s longtime adviser, David Popp, has claimed the senator is already meeting with staff to discuss defense spending, foreign policy, the farm bill, constituent services, and federal grant requests while continuing inpatient rehabilitation.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Whip John Barrasso, and other Republicans have also said they’ve spoken with McConnell about Senate business.
Dua said that’s exactly what shouldn’t be happening.
“If what they’re saying is true—that they’re working on Senate-related issues with this patient that is working on his rehab—that is atrocious,” she said. “If I was his doctor, I would put the kibosh on that right away.”
She went even further, suggesting McConnell’s staff may be placing unnecessary demands on a patient who should be focused exclusively on recovering.
“Are his staffers potentially pushing silly things like this and putting him in a situation where he really needs to just be left alone?” Dua asked. “I think all he’s hearing is probably an echo chamber of ‘you’ve got to get back,’ and they clearly don’t have a clue what’s going on. This poor elderly man is being, as I’ve said before, abused.”
Dua questioned how anyone undergoing intensive inpatient rehabilitation could realistically perform the duties expected of a U.S. senator at the same time.
“How can you possibly also do what is expected of you as a senator?” she asked.
In fact, she said she hopes the public messaging simply isn’t true.
“I hope the staffers are lying, and actually he’s getting the opportunity, as he deserves—as all patients do—to rest and recuperate without the added stress of running his state as a senator. It just sounds so ridiculous.”
Based on the limited information that has been released, Dua believes McConnell could remain in rehab for another month—or even several months—depending on the severity of his condition and the type of rehabilitation he’s receiving.
She noted that McConnell’s age, prolonged hospitalization, and previous signs of frailty suggest he is likely recovering in a skilled nursing rehabilitation facility, where patients receive both medical care and intensive physical therapy.
As for Monday’s statement from the attending physician, Dua said it revealed almost nothing.
“They basically purposefully said nothing,” she said. “A doctor’s office, unless you have explicit permission from a patient, is not going to write down where he is from a physical and mental standpoint and put it out to the press. What that was is very generic: he is in rehab, and the reason he is in rehab is to do rehab.”
