It’s been almost a month since Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) last shared a health update, leading to another round of speculation about when — or if — he will return to Congress, but experts say recovery from pneumonia in people McConnell’s age can take time.
The 84-year-old politician hasn’t been seen in public in nearly 3 months. According to official statements, McConnell was hospitalized after a fall in June, contracted pneumonia soon after, and following a stint at a rehab facility was discharged last month to continue physical therapy at home.
Pneumonia can range from mild cases where patients often bounce back quickly after intravenous and oral antibiotics to severe cases complicated by sepsis, said John Rowe, MD, a professor of health policy and aging at Columbia University in New York City.
Lung and immune system functions weaken with age, putting older patients like McConnell at particular risk, he told MedPage Today. “All these risks are magnified if the patient has a pre-existing condition — in this case, the residua of childhood polio — which may cause loss of muscle mass and strength,” said Rowe.
Patients with pneumonia usually make a full recovery, but for people in their mid-80s like McConnell, “it can be very debilitating, with recovery to full strength and activity requiring as much as 6 months,” he added.
McConnell’s press team did not reply to MedPage Today questions about the senator’s health and when he’s expected to return to Congress, though Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) suggested this week that McConnell may be aiming to return when the Senate reconvenes on Sept. 14.
Without further information on McConnell’s recovery or the severity of his condition, it’s hard to know if his continued absence is normal. Updates have been scarce and the public — as well as his colleagues — have repeatedly called for more details since his June hospitalization.
S. Jay Olshansky, PhD, of the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, says he used to believe that politicians deserved the same medical privacy as regular civilians, but now he views it as an issue of transparency.
“Just like airline pilots who have their health and cognitive functioning measured and evaluated because their jobs put other people’s lives on the line, I now believe politicians fall into this same category, since they make daily decisions that can turn out to be life-and-death decisions for many,” Olshansky told MedPage Today.
“I think it’s time all politicians or political candidates have their physicians reveal their full unredacted medical records annually as a prerequisite for entering office,” he added.
McConnell has had a history of falls and other health issues over the last decade, including when he froze mid-speech during a 2023 press conference and stared blankly for roughly 20 seconds.
News about his latest health issue started with reports of his hospitalization on June 14 for an undisclosed condition. Two weeks later, reporting revealed that paramedics had responded to a “cardiac arrest” on that day for an unconscious person at McConnell’s home and performed CPR, leading to rampant speculation about the seriousness of the senator’s illness.
On July 12, McConnell finally broke the silence and posted a long statement about his health, saying he was hospitalized for a fall and then experienced a mild bout of pneumonia, but said he was recovering and had been moved to a rehabilitation center. “My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital,” McConnell wrote at the time.
Remarks accompanying the statement from the Office of the Attending Physician said testing showed McConnell had no cardiac abnormalities.
On July 27, another statement attributed to McConnell was posted saying he was still undergoing “intense” physical therapy at the rehab facility.
That press release also had comments from the Office of the Attending Physician, which said physicians were meeting with McConnell daily but that the senator had not yet been medically cleared to be discharged and return to work.
“Since his discharge from hospital care, he has maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls,” the office stated, adding that McConnell’s childhood bout with polio had impacted his mobility.
The last official health update attributed to McConnell came on Aug. 6, when the senator said he was discharged home from a rehabilitation center to continue his recovery. “On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business,” the statement read.
The most the public has seen of McConnell throughout this time has been a pair of photos, released with the two July statements, showing the senator sitting with his wife beside him.
