TIAs can look like all sorts of things as they affect all sorts of brain regions to all sorts of degrees.
And your superior expertise comes from where exactly?
Part of a doctor's, psychiatrist's, neurologist's professional ethos is to never ever commit to a diagnosis when you haven't even seen the patient in person and talked to them. It is reckless for doctors (experts) to base a diagnosis on two brief episodes shown on TV.
But you as a lay person feel you can be sufficiently certain on the basis of "looks like", with exactly ZERO corroborating diagnostic evidence?
Never ever? Reckless? Oh brother.
See the pages long discussion on whether Trump has a mental illness. This matter was thoroughly discussed there.
This is a forum. People share their expertise all the time. I'm not treating a patient or seeing McConnell in my office. Your assertion we must never share our expertise: can you give me an example of another place where you might have asserted this ethical position?
A skeptic's stance always should be to withhold belief (and stay on the fence) until sufficient evidence is in.
No true skeptic's fallacy?
This said, I agree that "Absence seizure" is, at present the most likely cause of these episodes.
Similar to how NIST felt that their scenario of "girder walked off its seat due to expanding beams that frame in from the side" is their most likely explanation - but it surely could be wrong. The "most likely" hypothesis in some, perhaps many cases, may have a less than 50% likelihood of being true. (Not claiming this for McConnell having absence seizures.)
Oh dear, I didn't use the proper disclaimers: most likely, hypothesis, and likelihood.
It's not a typical absence seizure which is most often a pediatric diagnosis, despite it being called that on multiple websites.
I made that mistake myself until I reviewed the matter.
This site has decent discussion of the difference if anyone cares. I'm sure most people don't.
Absence seizures are most likely to affect children, and paying attention is a common problem for children. Since daydreaming can happen often in school for many different reasons, it may be hard to know if the staring is a seizure or not.
Often the first clue that a child may be having absence seizures is when he or she starts having trouble in school.
Technically an absence seizure is a petit mal seizure (and it's not a focal seizure). But not all petit mal seizures are absence seizures. The names get conflated frequently.
An absence seizure is a generalized onset seizure, which means it begins in both sides of the brain at the same time.
IOW it is not a focal seizure.
An older term is petit mal seizures.
Absence seizures usually affect only a person’s awareness of what is going on at that time, with immediate recovery. ...
... The eyes may turn upwards and eyelids flutter.
The seizures usually last less than 10 seconds.
And there are atypical absence seizures:
These absence seizures are called atypical because they may be longer, have a slower onset and offset, and involve different symptoms.
The seizure still starts with staring into space, usually with a blank look.
There is usually a change in muscle tone and movement. You may see
Blinking over and over that may look like fluttering of the eyelids
Smacking the lips or chewing movements
Rubbing fingers together or making other hand motions
An atypical absence seizure lasts longer, up to 20 seconds or more.
Not really what we observed with McConnell.
How can I tell the difference between absence seizures and focal impaired awareness seizures?
Seizures that involve staring and a change in awareness are sometimes mislabeled as absence seizures. People often confuse absence seizures with focal impaired awareness seizures.
focal impaired awareness is too long. I'll stick with petit mal in this informal setting.
Back to the difference:
Warning (aura) prior to the seizure
Confusion and sleepiness after the seizure (postictal state)
Duration longer than 30-45 seconds
Frequency is less often than daily
We can't say for sure McConnell had an aura or what his EEG showed. It did appear that his staff reminded him of what was happening to which McConnell answered something like "Oh yeah".
And given the most likely etiology was his recent fall, an absence seizure is not as likely as a petit mal or focal seizure.
Though if people use the term absence seizure in this discussion, meh, who cares. I don't.
By the way, the use of term "petit mal seizure" is discouraged nowadays.
Oh for pity's sake. Is this '
knowledge' supposed to increase your cred?
