Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said the stroke he suffered just days before last year’s Democratic primaries was “technically” fatal, as he shared more grim details about the experience in an interview. released Monday by Men’s Health.
Fetterman survived both the stroke and a public battle with depression, telling writer Ryan D’Agostino that he had overcome a terrible “paranoia” when speaking to reporters — fearing the “recreational cruelty” he would face on Fox News or on Twitter was shown – and that he was ‘no longer afraid’ of his mortality.
The 54-year-old lawmaker spoke of how fortunate he was that he was near Lancaster General Hospital in May 2022 when the side of his face “started to droop.”
“And my speech started making – I was arguing the whole time until we got there, but my brain was fighting to – literally, I was dying,” Fetterman said, recalling that he didn’t want to. cancel a campaign event at Millsville University.
The stroke was so severe, Fetterman said, that he would not have survived if he had had the stroke while he was sleeping, “or if we had been in a remote part of Pennsylvania,” he suggested.
Senator John Fetterman (left) is visited in the hospital by his wife Gisele (right) and three children after suffering a stroke in May 2022, just days before Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate primary – a race he won
Gisele (left) and Senator John Fetterman (right) pose on the red carpet at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April after Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed for treatment for depression in February
Fetterman won his Democratic primary days later and faced Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz in the general election.
The former mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, said his late October debate against Oz — which was widely panned because Fetterman had suffered from auditory processing problems since the stroke — initially sent him into a deep depression.
He said the political rhetoric used against him was “terrible” and “a little off-putting in high school.”
“I would never joke about it, saying, ‘Ha ha ha, you’re limping!’ he said. “I don’t understand anyone having fun with that, because it could be your brother, it could be your father, it could be your child.”
He said he was on “borrowed time” after the debate through Election Day.
“I’ve been putting tape together for the last few weeks to hold me together,” he said.
D’Agostino pointed out that despite the trouble, Fetterman still won – by five points.
John (left) and Gisele (right) Fetterman leave their polling place in Braddock, Pennsylvania on Election Day. The Democrat would defeat Republican Dr. later that evening. Defeating Mehmet Oz
A campaign ad from Fetterman’s Senate campaign last year. The Men’s Health interview was released Monday, about a year after the Democrat won his Senate seat
‘I won!’ said the senator. ‘But to be honest, I didn’t expect to win because it was a blowtorch. “You’re a****d.” “You’re a vegetable.” Can you imagine, on the other hand, me making fun of someone who had a stroke?’
‘What the hell is going on? What the hell is wrong with you? You know? And that was – at that point I almost stopped eating,” Fetterman said. “I was dehydrated.”
Fetterman checked into Walter Reed in February to be treated for depression and suicidal thoughts.
His wife Gisele suspected for years that he suffered from depression and read about it.
Fetterman said he believed he suffered from “melancholy” thanks to his “complicated” origin story.
“(B)ecause I was an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy of two teenagers who were only casually dating,” he said. ‘And I always felt a sense of responsibility or shame, because essentially I was a mistake. So I have never been able to have anything other than a low opinion of myself.’
Nearly a year since he won the election, Fetterman said he was glad President Joe Biden remained by his side.
“He has been extremely kind, supportive and decent,” Fetterman described. “It would have been very easy for them to withdraw quietly. But it was the opposite. He threw himself into me, and I will be forever grateful for that.”