Why McCain's Health Matters

via CommonDreams:



Published on Friday, October 10, 2008 by The Indianapolis Star
Why McCain's Health Matters

by Ken Bode


Last week a full-page ad appeared in The New York Times with the names of 2,768 doctors who call on Sen. John McCain to issue a full, public release of his medical records.

McCain is 72 years old. Should he be elected, he would be the oldest man ever to assume the presidency. He has suffered four bouts of cancer, invasive melanoma, most recently in May of this year. Dr. Rachael Clark, professor of dermatology at the Harvard Medical School, put it this way: "I feel it is critical that people understand how quickly and fatally melanoma can recur, sometimes with decades of remission preceding a rapid decline."

The GOP has a habit of drawing its presidential candidates from the ranks of the elderly. When he took office, Ronald Reagan was the oldest ever to do so. Looking back on his final years as president, there were many indications of the Alzheimer's that finally ended his life. When Sen. Robert Dole was nominated in 1996, he was slightly older than McCain is now. Like McCain, Dole had war injuries. His prostate was removed in 1991. Unlike McCain, he treated age and health issues directly and with candor.

"You have to be honest with yourself," Dole allowed, "It's certainly important to the American people." Dole released a detailed set of medical records, considered to be the most complete for any candidate up to that time.

McCain has resisted a full public release. Nor will he allow a panel of physicians to examine his records and make their assessment public. Last spring his campaign permitted a group of reporters to look at 1,173 unnumbered pages of records but refused to allow them to make copies or even to take notes. Why not? Given the gravity of McCain's illness, he must waive confidentiality and provide Americans a full, accurate and honest assessment. When McCain is asked about his age or health, he simply dismisses the inquiry by saying, in effect, "Take it up with my mother."

It is troubling that we don't know the final pathology report and the tissue diagnoses on his melanomas, which would indicate the level of cancer he has suffered. Dr. Ronald Bronow, former chief of dermatology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, says, "If McCain's melanoma returns, the treatment alone would be severely debilitating." ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/10-11

I'm beginning to think they are both disasters.

be an inch from the Presidency! :scared:

the true state of McLiar's health with the threat of the fundamentalist on his ticket.