A speech pathologist warned that Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) recent thumbs-ups and waves are automatic reflexes masking a likely brain injury that rarely heals.
Hilary Shae, a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist who specializes in concussion and neurological disorders, told "The David Pakman Show" in a Wednesday interview that McConnell "really appears to be someone who has suffered" a brain injury caused by loss of oxygen. She stressed that she was not offering a diagnosis.
"Clearly, as we all know, we cannot diagnose somebody that we've never met," Shae said. "As a speech-language pathologist, I do not diagnose brain injuries."
Shae pointed to what she called McConnell's "so-called fall with pneumonia" and a 911 call reporting that "someone was down" before "CPR was administered." CPR starting right away "typically means you're not breathing," she said, adding, "So how long did his brain lose oxygen?"
She said that what McConnell does when "he's so-called answering questions is what's called a stereotypic gesture," which she described as "basically an automatic."
"So we've seen him do thumbs up," Shae said. "We've had a little bit of a wave. He stuck out his hand to shake somebody's hand. But that person basically did all the work. So all of those are these automatic gestures which can sometimes be preserved with significant brain damage. He's not showing anything else."
She added that McConnell is "not saying anything," noting that when he voted "aye" on a farm bill, "someone basically had to say, 'Say aye.'"
Shae also cited footage of McConnell being wheeled over curbs and a bump in a doorway.
"There's no real movement in any of his body that shows that his body is even aware of the fact that there was this bump," she said. "His legs don't move, his hands don't move. He's showing nothing."
Asked about recovery, Shae was blunt.
"Recovery of anoxic brain injury is one of the least likely recoveries," she said.
She pointed to "years' worth of falls with concussions," his "freezing moments" in which "20, 30 seconds goes by," and post-polio syndrome, saying "it's not a good outcome for someone with that health history to then have an anoxic brain injury."
"I would not expect any type of recovery that would allow him to be a functioning human being, or even really a senator," Shae said.
She added that the timeline makes things worse. "It's pretty significant to say it's been four-plus months and this is where we're at right now," she said.