AG Mukasey Collapsed in 'Fainting Spell,' Official Says

[tekisui]

(CNN) -- U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey suffered a fainting spell Thursday night, according to Gina Talamona, spokeswoman for the Department of Justice.

Mukasey, 67, did not suffer a stroke or experience a heart attack, she said Friday morning.

Mukasey collapsed while giving a speech Thursday at the Federalist Society dinner at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington.

He was giving a spirited defense of the Bush administration's legal policies when his speech began to slur and he lost track of his thoughts about 30 minutes into his talk. Seconds later, he became rigid and then began to slump.

Mukasey was rushed to George Washington University Medical Center, said Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman.

"The attorney general is conscious, conversant and alert," Carr said Thursday night. "His vital statistics are strong and he is in good spirits.

President Bush placed a call to Mukasey Friday morning. "The AG sounded well and is getting excellent care," presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

more at link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/20/michael.mukasey.collapse/index.html

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I have very limited medical knowledge. Does the video suggest a "fainting spell"?

[WI_DEM]

1. My guess is that even he couldn't believe what he was saying and his system reacted.

[cboy4]

3. Now that's funny.

LOL

[Stanchetalarooni]

20. Cognitive dissonance.

He knows that the wheels of justice grind slow and fine.

[Benhurst]

2. "The AG sounded well and is getting excellent care,"

You bet he is, at tax payer's expense.

The World's Only Superpower and Third World Dump.

[Hokie]

4. Any doctors out there?

That looked like more than a fainting spell.

[hisownpetard]

5. Video removed. Sounds like a stroke, though.

[tekisui]

8. See video here:

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3211448&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com

[redirish28]

15. Link to Fox video had sound. My wife said the sluring of words is

a sign of a stroke so is the shaking of the body.


Granted she is not a doctor or nurse but she but she worked with a lot of mentally challenged people and has had CPR training and the like and one thing they drill into her where the signs of a stroke. and slurr speech was one of them.

[rateyes]

6. Guilt can do some damned funny things to a person. nt

[zanne]

7. I hope he wasn't poisoned.

That would be bad.

[TwilightGardener]

9. Low blood sugar or seizure of some sort would be my guess--although slurring words and

the slumpy way he acted before he collapsed pretty much said "stroke" to this old nurse. Had he had a temporary decrease of blood flow to the brain (vagal response causing slowed heart beat, big-time dehydration, etc.), it would have been more sudden, more of a quick faint.

[Warpy]

12. TIA or dysrhythmia

It could have been either. If it was the latter, then he's not long for this world.

[lazer47]

10. Scared he wont get a pardon,,is most likely the reason

[Marr]

11. Perhaps the smell of his own bullshit overwhelmed him.

[Stanchetalarooni]

21. Excelent observation.

He has enough conscience to know that what he is covering up is so very wrong. Or, enough intelligence to know that the coverup has been done so very poorly.

[BR_Parkway]

13. Shrub said "No pardon for you"?

[Buzz Clik]

14. Just a case of the vapors. Move along. Nothing to see here.

[hlthe2b]

16. Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), I'd bet for sure...

essentially a "mini stroke" transient enough not to leave signs or symptoms after the fact. Alternately, possibly a transitory cardiac arrhythmia..

Any medical person who saw the video and noted his confusion and inability to verbalize-- complete a thought, followed by slurring of his words would be unlikely to pass it off as a mere "fainting spell." If they did, I would certainly hope they would have a Holter (remote cardiac monitoring system) on him for a few days...

[tekisui]

17. Thanks.

That was helpful.

[madmom]

18. Something similar to this happened to me last summer. I broke out in a cold

sweat, I got really shaky, my speech was slurred, my breathing was labored.I don't know if I lost consciousness,if I did it was for an extremely short time. Doctors still don't know what caused it.

[hlthe2b]

19. cold sweat, shaky, disoriented... may suggest low blood sugar...

Glucose tolerance test might be in order, even if you have had normal fasting blood sugars..

[madmom]

22. Actually I have type 2 diabetes and the first thing that was checked was my blood sugar level and it

was high 90s so that was ruled out. I wore a heart monitor for a week and still know nothing. Luckily it hasn't happened again, so far. But thanks for the concern.

[hlthe2b]

23. Best wishes...and hope no recurrences.... n/t

[madmom]

25. Thanks : )

[TwilightGardener]

24. I had that happen to me twice as a teenager--

cold sweat, shaky, everything took on a green/yellow cast and I lost my peripheral vision, and I couldn't walk straight--staggered, in fact, and had to sit down before I passed out. Didn't pass out though. First time, it happened in church, second time, it happened after a March of Dimes Walkathon. I chalk it up to an empty stomach/dehydration/low blood sugar.