HARRISBURG, PA (AP) – Cardiologist John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania who is recovering from a stroke, revealed Friday that the candidate also has cardiomyopathy, in which the heart muscle is weakens and enlarges.
The recognition was the first public comment from a Fetterman doctor since the candidate first appeared on social media on May 15 to reveal the stroke.
In a statement released through the campaign, Fetterman’s cardiologist Dr. Ramesh Chandra said Fetterman will be fine if he eats healthy foods, takes prescribed medications, and exercises.
Cardiomyopathy can impede blood flow and potentially cause such irregular heartbeats that it can be fatal.
Fetterman, 52, easily won the Democratic nomination while in hospital two days later, just hours after undergoing surgery to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator.
The fall general election is expected to be one of the main contests for the country’s Senate. Fetterman has not said when he will return to the campaign.
In a separate statement Friday, Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, said doctors had told him to continue resting, eating healthy, exercising and focusing on his recovery, “and that’s exactly what I’m doing.” .
Fetterman acknowledged that he ignored the warning signs after learning in 2017 that he had heart disease.
His cardiologist told him he would never have had a stroke if he had continued to take anticoagulants, he said.
“The stroke I suffered on May 13 didn’t come out of nowhere,” Fetterman said, “and as a result, I almost died.”
Fetterman is 6 feet 8 and has been open about his push to lose weight in the past. He weighed more than £ 400 before losing about £ 150 in 2018, when he ran for lieutenant governor.
Fetterman said his stroke was caused by a heart condition called atrial fibrillation and that doctors implanted the pacemaker on May 17 to manage it.
Doctors removed the clot from Fetterman’s brain using a thrombectomy procedure, his campaign said. This means removing it by inserting a catheter through a large artery, usually into the groin.
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However, there have been questions about what effects Fetterman continues to suffer from stroke and why doctors implanted a defibrillator along with a pacemaker.
Chandra said the defibrillator, which provides corrective discharges when it detects life-threatening irregular rhythms, was implanted due to Fetterman’s cardiomyopathy.
Fetterman has not made a public appearance, other than a couple of short videos of him posted on social media talking at the hospital on May 15 and leaving him a week later.
A spokesman for the campaign, Joe Calvello, said Fetterman was not suffering from any form of stroke paralysis.
“He’s up and walking, doing errands and calling with his staff,” Calvello said.
On Friday, he made a Zoom call with Senator Bob Casey.
On Wednesday, Fetterman saw his neurologist, who was impressed with Fetterman’s progress and said that cognitively, “John is perfect and is on his way to a full recovery,” Calvello said.
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