Mitch McConnell might be freezing up in public because he’s having small seizures, doctors suggest

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Doctors have speculated that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell may be having seizures after he awkwardly froze up again during a press conference.

McConnell, 81, was taking a reporter’s question about running for reelection during a news conference on Wednesday when he suddenly appeared disoriented and confused.

“Leader McConnell felt momentarily lightheaded and paused during his press conference today,” a spokesperson told CNN, adding that he would be consulting a physician before his next event.

Last month, McConnell had a similarly awkward moment when he abruptly stopped speaking during a press conference at the Capitol. At the time, an aide gave the same explanation to Insider, saying that McConnell “felt lightheaded.”

Both moments have drawn speculation that McConnell is unwell, with three doctors telling news outlets that his spells of disorientation and confusion might be indicative of seizures. The physicians based their assessments on viewing the video of McConnell, and none of them examined him.

These spells are evidently more severe than simply somebody losing their train of thought, said Dr. David Thaler, neurologist-in-chief at Tufts Medical Center, in an interview with WCVB-TV.

He added: “This looks different in duration and severity, where he really seems to have lost the ability to communicate momentarily.”

Thaler said the “most likely explanation is little, tiny seizures, which are electrical changes in the brain.”

The supposed seizures could be connected to a series of falls and a concussion in March experienced by McConnell, Thaler told WCVB-TV.

“I don’t think whatever is causing this to happen caused the fall, but the fall and the head injury could theoretically be related to these episodes,” he explained.

Similarly, Dr. Keith Vossel, a professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, told DailyMail.com that he also suspects seizures could be the explanation.

Vossel told the news outlet: “So, to me, this looks like an absence seizure.”

Absence seizures, or petit mal seizures, can cause somebody to lose awareness of their surroundings and to become momentarily unresponsive, the neurologist said, per DailyMail.com.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, these seizures are a type of epilepsy caused by abnormal brain activity that can be recognized by a blank stare that lasts for a few seconds. 

Vossel said that age is a major risk factor for these types of seizures, more so than experiencing a fall, per DailyMail.com.

However, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, said in an interview with CNN that concussion would make experiencing absence seizures relatively unsurprisingly.

“The Senator had a really traumatic brain injury in March when he fell,” he said, per CNN. “About 10% of people who have a big enough injury to be hospitalized after a head injury like that will subsequently have things like a seizure, and that’s what it looks like to me.”

Insider contacted McConnell’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.