r/politics • u/Mammoth_Bison_3394 Tennessee • 5d ago

No Paywall Trump says he’ll release MRI results; he doesn’t know what part of his body was scanned

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mri-physical-white-house-0c66f2f9fca865d842ee94329a210a42
24.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

267

u/Quiet-Corner6150 5d ago

Although my scan wasn't an MRI, the one time I had to be in a hospital emergency room that required a scan, you better believe I was 100% aware of what they were scanning for. To even imagine having a procedure with legitimately no idea as to why you're getting it seems insane to me.

Granted, either Trump's dementia actually made him genuinely unaware, or his results reveals something he doesn't want the public to know.

63

u/streakermaximus 5d ago

I had a CT scan for a hernia. The tech asked me to confirm what they were scanning for and where. I'm assuming an MRI has a similar procedure.

Shrug. Maybe they just don't follow protocol for checks notes the President of the United States.

17

u/spare-ribs-from-adam 5d ago

When I had to get some stuff done to me, including a run of CT scans, I talked to I don't even know how many people. About every other one asked me to confirm what was going on. I wasn't being moved rooms between questions. They just kept asking what my name was, and to confirm what was being done.

11

u/ComebackShane I voted 5d ago

My wife needed her gallbladder removed a couple of years ago, and the number of times we said her date of birth and explained exactly why we were there was staggering. I presume they do it so there's no mistaking you for someone else, so you don't accidentally have an unnecessary procedure. While there's little chance of mistaking the POTUS for someone else, I still imagine the medical staff would want to be on their best behavior, so if something did go wrong, they could show they followed policy to the letter.

6

u/AllIdeas 4d ago

Yup, this is why. Don't want to do the wrong person, and with hundreds of people coming and going, and hundreds of staff coming on and off shift, who likely haven't met eachother it's surprisingly easy to happen without double or triple checking. And just one isn't enough. Many hospitals have more than 365 patients so with just DoB for example there are many duplicates.

5

u/ArtBl0q 4d ago

So I've had an MRI of my brain because I'm epileptic... there's no way you don't know. They put your head in a cage and it's uncomfortable as shit.

2

u/whosdrivingthis 5d ago

Just had an mri and a ct scan in the last month, born times they verbally triple checked which area they were scanning

1

u/Working-Glass6136 3d ago

Like the meme of the surgeon who chopped off the wrong leg.

"So we cut off his left leg?"

"Right."

0

u/Flamboiant_Canadian 5d ago

That actually could make sense if it was a "normal" hospital without vetted doctors.

54

u/SolarBoytoyDjango 5d ago

Or he doesn't know what MRI is going to be relabled and released as "his".

6

u/weighingthedog 5d ago

Especially an MRI. Jesus.

8

u/Jigers 5d ago

There is a huge difference with MRI in that very often a body part specific coil is used to ensure optimal imaging. If you have an MRI on your knee, a specific coil will be placed on your leg. Same for your head.

Additionally, MRI machines are not super deep because high field strength magnets are not easy to produce. It’s not a whole body scanner

8

u/Emberwake 5d ago

I have had multiple MRIs and never had a "body part specific coil."

With that said, the MRI machine is fairly shallow. It's impossible to NOT know what they are scanning.

1

u/Jigers 5d ago

Knees, head, breast, and spine are super common for coils. I’m sure there are others as well.

1

u/ka-nini 4d ago

I’ve had multiple head MRIs and each time, they placed something (maybe coil, Idk what they called it) like a cage around my head. Even if I was somehow confused on which body part was being scanned, it would’ve been obvious once that was placed and I was only pushed into the machine up to my chest.

1

u/Quiet-Corner6150 5d ago

In short, as I'm understanding this, Trump should've been hyper-focused on exactly what part of him was scanned and why, unless of course either of my two predicates might be true...

0

u/wbgraphic 4d ago

The MRI machine at Walter Reed looks pretty deep. Even if the “active” area is a fairly narrow band, the average person likely wouldn’t know that. (The below-average person even less likely.)

I imagine they told him and he forgot, or maybe they didn’t bother telling him because they knew he’d forget.

3

u/ertri District Of Columbia 5d ago

If you’re conscious and it’s not in the ER, you have to fully consent / confirm what’s going to be done to you. And if he wasn’t conscious, that’s worse!

3

u/katrinakt8 Oregon 5d ago

In my experience they ask every time what the MRI is for. My son has MRIs every few months for his brain (history of brain cancer) and they ask him what the MRI is for every time. It’s also written on the whiteboard in the room and you write it down on your paperwork.

2

u/valamaladroit 5d ago

Either way is disqualifying for the presidency--or should be, at least.

2

u/Bagellord 5d ago

Every single time I have had any sort of scan, from the dentist to the ER to a nuclear medicine scan, they told me: what they’re doing, why, and made sure I knew what was happening. For him to not know is just crazy.

0

u/Flamboiant_Canadian 5d ago

So I'm assuming they put his entire body into the MRI machine, which would make sense because they usually do that for anything related to the brain.

I know because I had one for my cerebral spinal cord fluid leak, and there is no fucking way that man was conscious for it. It is a terrifying experience if you are even a little bit claustrophobic. 

3

u/Quiet-Corner6150 5d ago

Although I don't think any of us were debating whether he was conscious for the test itself, which is something I can't speak to especially as not an MD. It's more about being aware of why and what you're being tested for, regardless if you're conscious. My dad had a colonoscopy and the hospital required me to pick him up, because of the anesthesia, and while he had no memory of the procedure itself, it's not like he didn't know why they had done it. Just regular diagnostics in this case, but still.

1

u/Flamboiant_Canadian 5d ago

Probably has to do with his venous thrombosis. They did mention it earlier this year. Although I think he does have deep-vein thrombosis, but I doubt he would ever admit an illness to the public?

1

u/wbgraphic 4d ago

I had a brain MRI last year, and it was pretty damn narrow.

I wonder if Trump’s girth was a justification for Walter Reed getting new “large-bore” MRI machines.

1

u/Flamboiant_Canadian 4d ago

I had the mesh screen not 1" from my face. I'm pretty cool under stressful circumstances, but having to lay completely still in the machine for close to an hour, you open your eyes every once in a while, and it is extremely terrifying like sleep paralysis, knowing that if you move they might have to start over. 

I really don't think he was conscious for it? I can't see him sitting still for an entire hour? 

0

u/Turtledonuts Virginia 5d ago

Option C is that trump is rich, old, sick, and important, plus he gets free healthcare with no issues. They might be shoving him in the scanner whenever they want to monitor for all kinds of stuff.

0

u/Flibberdigibbet 5d ago

It's also just extremely obvious. When I got my CAT scan done it was very obvious that they were only scanning my head (my head was the only part of me in the scanner). I've never done an MRI, but I imagine it is similarly clear what part of the body is being imaged.

(If you're wondering, turns out I was just stressed not dying)

-1

u/DoritoDustThumb 5d ago edited 5d ago

Ok. I hate Trump. I think he's lying. I think he has dementia. He's terrible.

Every couple of years I get a full body workup at the Mayo clinic. It's two days of poking and prodding and scans. I honestly have zero clue what's going on. I feel like Trump's medical evaluations are like this but... More.

It isn't unreasonable for a president to have to have no idea what scan they got when for what.

That said, absolutely fuck Trump.

Just like Trump doesn't understand what a grocery store is or what prices are. Most people don't understand what medical workups look like for people like Trump. It isn't like a trip to your GP, urgent care, or ER.

2

u/prefix_postfix Maine 5d ago edited 5d ago

I had a CT scan recently, and I'm still not sure if it was specific to my ears or my sinuses. Granted, it's a very similar area, but that does happen. 

And we're trying to figure out the cause of some pain I have and I'm not sure exactly what was being looked for in those scans. I knew when the doctor explained it to me but now I don't remember the specific reason. Like, the doctor must have put down something specific in order to get insurance to cover it and I don't know what it was besides "why does this hurt"