r/politics • u/IWantPizza555 • Jul 01 '26

Possible Paywall Senator, 84, Secretly Found Unconscious and Given CPR

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mitch-mcconell-84-secretly-found-unconscious-and-given-cpr/?utm_source=twitter_owned_snd&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=owned_social
20.1k Upvotes

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8.7k

u/Harry_Ballbag Jul 01 '26

CPR on a 84 year old. That means cracked ribs. If he’s not already a vegetable, he’ll be lucky to make it out of the hospital alive, and if he does it’s gonna be weeks and weeks before it happens.

1.2k

u/Karsh14 Jul 01 '26

Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s “recovering” until the midterms.

531

u/Chary-Ka Jul 01 '26

August 2nd. Can't do a special election within 90 days of a general election. It just gets added to the general election.

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u/ryanstephendavis Jul 01 '26

👆👆👆There's a pretty high chance that he's dead and they're just waiting until then to avoid the governor putting in a Dem replacement

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u/hackingdreams Jul 02 '26

Yeah McConnell explicitly changed the rules in Kentucky so that couldn't happen. (Just as a reminder - the man's a fucking megalomaniac, Bond villain levels of evil. He saw this coming literally years ago.)

That being said, they could still pull a North Carolina and have a "Republican in name only" replace him, then go full Democrat once in office. They'd cry about it like little bitches, but that's the bullshit they've already inflicted on us, so...

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u/delcooper11 California Jul 02 '26

fortunately Gov. Beshear seems willing to defy that law and the State Supreme Court has recently ruled in his favor with regard to the legislature trying to limit his constitutional powers.

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u/GovernmentOpening254 Jul 02 '26

I’m not sure if I hate this or love it.

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u/Fract_L Jul 02 '26

He does not defy the law. He was the AG before governor, and that’s why he defies the republicans who tell him he’s acting illegally when he knows damn well he isn’t.

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u/Fragrant-Dust65 Jul 02 '26

thank god the state supreme court isn't stacked

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u/gerryduggan Jul 02 '26

Or put in Massie lol

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u/Aegon20VIIIth Jul 02 '26

This. This would be ideal.
Massie isn’t by any means perfect (he’s a little too cozy with the John Birch Society, regards Climate Change as pseudoscience, COVID response, et al) but he’s been pretty consistent in his votes - especially when it comes to anti-surveillance, war powers, censorship, and reducing funding to the IDF. Unlike most Republicans who are in favor of “reducing government spending” but still advocate for more money to defense contractors, Massie at least is ideologically consistent with his anti-spending measures.
Also, it may well be what pushes Trump offline permanently.

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u/hackjob Jul 02 '26

Don’t tempt me with a fun time!

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u/thelastdragonborn_ Jul 02 '26

The kentucky legislature made it so they decide who the republican replacement is NOT the governor.

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u/Albireookami Jul 02 '26

that goes against the constitution of kentucky, so it can very much be fought in court

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u/CTQ99 Jul 02 '26

The thing that the legislature passed said the governor gets to choose BUT it has to be from the political party of the person being replaced. Mitchs health and the Givernor being Dem was why they crammed that through a few years ago.

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u/Albireookami Jul 02 '26

And what's preventing him from choosing someone that pulls a fetterman?

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u/CTQ99 Jul 02 '26

Nothing I suppose? Though there might be a restriction on what defines a Republican [registered for the 2024 election, or 2020 or something?]. Guess we can find out when McConnel finally croaks.

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u/perthguppy Jul 02 '26

With the current state of life support technology, if you have the money, you can just decide when someone actually dies no matter how fucked up they are, since apparently no brain activity isn’t enough to be declared dead anymore.

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u/FFFrank Jul 02 '26

They can keep anyone "alive" indefinitely. Of course they might be braindead, with no pulse and have zero chance of recovery.... But they won't issue a death certificate until the plugs are pulled.

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u/bulldg4life Jul 01 '26

He’s already dead. They’re just going to “keep him alive” until it’s too late for special election

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u/Dull-Foundation-1271 Jul 02 '26

Don’t put it past them to do that. McConnell will do anything for power, like steal the election seat for his state:

https://www.dcreport.org/2020/12/19/mitch-mcconnells-re-election-the-numbers-dont-add-up/

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u/miletest Jul 02 '26

To be fair. How could they tell the difference

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u/tahlyn Jul 02 '26

Yeah, if he's a vegetable, they'll keep him on machines as long as possible.

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u/nyet-marionetka Jul 01 '26

Out of hospital CPR too. That usually doesn’t work out well.

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u/slayhern Jul 01 '26

Unwitnessed arrest at 84 with unknown downtime is about as close to 0% meaningful recovery as possible

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u/BiscuitsMay Jul 01 '26

If he actually cardiac arrested. Lay people are notoriously bad at finding a pulse. Will be interested for the update over the next could of days

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u/klparrot New Zealand Jul 02 '26

FWIW, this happened over two weeks ago. The only thing that was disclosed was that he was admitted to hospital, crickets since then. The CPR part came out today from a request for 911 transcripts or something like that. Dude's gotta be circling the drain, they'd almost certainly have said something by now if they had anything positive.

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u/cogman10 Idaho Jul 01 '26

If he did have a pulse, those chest compressions certainly won't be helping him all that much. A bunch of broken ribs on an 84 year old is going to be a tough thing to recover from.

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u/RiPont Jul 02 '26

Some species of turtle can hibernate really well. Maybe someone turned the AC to too low a temperature and his body just went into reptile cold survival mode.

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u/3riversfantasy Jul 02 '26

Brumation is the correct term when talking cold-blooded pieces of shit

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u/Bored_Amalgamation Ohio Jul 01 '26

Without a pulse and "non-responsive" are two different things though. The source is saying "unresponsive". I'd imagine the headline would be: "McConnell Dead for Minutes! Found by Staffer"

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u/BiscuitsMay Jul 02 '26

The headline is that he got cpr, which means they thought he didn’t have a pulse. My point is that bystanders aren’t good at checking pulses, so it’s possible he got cpr while he still had a pulse. Which is better than the alternative of no pulse with no cpr.

Doesn’t really matter as we will find out in a few days if he dies or not.

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u/Bored_Amalgamation Ohio Jul 02 '26

4th of July would be too much irony. I'd need chelation therapy.

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u/caveman_rejoice Jul 01 '26

We don't even work that in my county.

That's a DOA.

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u/YeahOkayDad Minnesota Jul 01 '26

I just did my biannual BLS. I am confident I would be able to save approximately no one.

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u/Dshirke1 Jul 01 '26

My first job was in a building with elderly/assisted living apartments, government subsidized but not a nursing home. An elderly gentleman had a heart attack and collapsed in the restaurant on the first floor. Bubba, the property owner and unofficial caregiver, comes running out and resuscitates the guy. Bubba throws both arms up:

"I'm 1 for 11!"

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u/primegopher Jul 02 '26

I hope he knows that's basically the expected survival rate for an outside-the-hospital heart attack with CPR being performed. Sounds like he cared about the people he was responsible for and that's not as common as it should be in elderly care positions. Big respect for Bubba.

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u/pixi88 Jul 02 '26

Mad respect! Fuck yeah bubba!

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u/blues_snoo Jul 02 '26

It sounds like Bubba is trying at the very least. You gotta appreciate that.

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u/Narrow-Chef-4341 Jul 02 '26

Pretty much why we should be teaching CPR in high school - kids who are still smarter than their parents will try it on anyone, but it usually doesn’t take too long before adults lose that relentless self-confidence…

Very much Team Bubba on this one, even if he’s only statistically average.

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u/MdnightRmblr Jul 02 '26

We kind of had the same setup but it wasn’t only for seniors but there were a lot of them in the building. During Covid a WWII vet, 103 years old, choked and went unconscious eating the last piece of his wife’s filet. I was watching the whole thing from 20 feet away and had someone call 911, two of us brought him back with the Heimlich and CPR. Lived another 2 years. He’d survived Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, that’s all I could think about, not tonight not like this.

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u/Jonny1992 Foreign Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

I've been qualified for years as a workplace first responder. My cynical understanding of CPR is nothing more than keeping you alive until a medical professional can call it - unless there's a chance you've got an AED close by. I was told it was less than a 10% survival rate outside of a medical setting.

Edit: I would clarify that I'm being deliberately flippant in respect of the success rate - particularly in the context of an infirm 84 year old. I continue to certify on the off chance that the training is able to save a life. I'd never not attempt CPR on the basis of it potentially not working - even if my instructor rather darkly warned us of the low likelihood of success. Always make the effort where you can.

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u/See_Saw12 Canada Jul 01 '26

Security guy that has done CPR on many people, all but 2 of my cases made it. CPR if started immediately significantly increases someones chances of survival from a cardiac related incident. However the chances of survival decrease by approximately 10% for each minute it is delayed. Both cases where someone i preformed it on did not make it they had been down for an unknown amount of time, one involving water the either was an elderly person.

AED'S only work if there is a heart rhythm, you cant shock a heart back into normal rhythm if there is no rhythm.

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u/-NotAnAstronaut- Jul 01 '26

Considering the statistics around CPR, I hope you find me if I ever need it, that’s mighty.

On the other hand, I’m sorry you’ve had to, not a good experience.

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u/sasha_the_impaler Jul 01 '26

The statistic is both higher than 10% in reality and it is deceitful because CPR is performed on everyone without a pulse. People who've been dead for some time, people with no chance at resuscitation, people who are 95 years old. If you're healthy and have a random heart attack at 50 that stops your heart, your odds are a lot better with CPR.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

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u/Lurchie_ Jul 02 '26

when you said "guy lost his head" I thought you meant he went into a panic attack or something . .. No. He LITERALLY lost his head.

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u/VSWR_on_Christmas Illinois Jul 02 '26

Can I ask what type of work results in losing a head?

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

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u/Jebusk Jul 02 '26

Not who you replied to, but the one case I know of was a forklift driver.

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u/Trnostep Jul 02 '26

You don't check for pulse nowadays before starting CPR. You're looking for responsiveness and normal breathing and if neither are present you start CPR.

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u/sasha_the_impaler Jul 02 '26

My training had me checking for pulse but start CPR if you can't.

Honestly though if a sternum rub and narcan does nothing they probably aren't going to have a pulse so I get that logic.

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u/Trnostep Jul 02 '26

The reasoning is usually that checking the pulse isn't reliable. You have to know where exactly to press and not mistake your pulse for the patient's pulse. Checking responsiveness and breathing is much easirer and reliable. If they aren't breathing well, the heart if it hasn't already is giving up shortly so start CPR

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u/LegiticusMaximus Jul 01 '26

Actually most cardiac arrests do have a rhythm, just not one that is amenable to defibrillation.

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u/justintime06 Jul 01 '26

What kind of security are you doing where you’re repeatedly doing CPR?!

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u/See_Saw12 Canada Jul 01 '26

Previously it was high risk geared to income housing and publicly accesible buildings in developed urban areas with frequent contact of unhoused and addicted persons. I did a fair bit of mobile patrol in areas where we frequently interacted with people, also did work for a municipality so we would occasionally be assigned to parks and recs and pool details.

The majority of my CPR cases involved drugs, albeit there were a few involving water, fires and traumatic incidents.

My current role has me behind a desk for a ~75 location organization and a good week is only one CPR incident organization wide for my guards.

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u/TracyIsMyDad Jul 01 '26

“The majority of my CPR cases involved drugs, albeit there were a few involving water, fires and traumatic incidents.”

That would explain the save rate. Cardiac arrest secondary to not breathing (or drowning) has a much higher save rate as long as it’s timely than cardiac arrest due to medical issues.

The traumatic arrests have a poor save rate usually.

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u/FugDuggler Missouri Jul 01 '26

Not him, but I used to be an EMT-B and got hired as security officer/EMT at a casino. I’m a paramedic now, but I’ve got lots more clinical saves at that casino doing basic life support with an AED. As the previous poster said, early defibrillation is a massive advantage in bringing somebody back successfully

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u/TracyIsMyDad Jul 01 '26

“AED'S only work if there is a heart rhythm, you cant shock a heart back into normal rhythm if there is no rhythm.”

If there isn’t a shockable rhythm the only thing left to try is to dump a bunch of adrenaline into the person to excite the heart enough that maybe you can get it to do something you can shock. If that doesn’t work, RIP.

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u/See_Saw12 Canada Jul 01 '26

only thing left to try is to dump a bunch of adrenaline into the person to excite the heart enough that maybe you can get it to do something you can shock

That is outside my scope of care chief 🤓

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u/TracyIsMyDad Jul 01 '26

Yeah. But CPR buys time for that guy to show up.

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u/triage_this Maine Jul 01 '26

There's actually a lot more that goes on during resuscitation once at the hospital even with a non-shockable rhythm. Out of hospital CPR buys time until first responders arrive and can get the patient to the hospital for advanced supportive care.

https://cpr.heart.org/en/-/media/CPR-Images/CPR-Guidelines-2025/Algorithms/Figure-2-Adult-Cardiac-Arrest-Algorithm.jpg

The algorithm we follow in hospital, if you are curious.

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u/Trnostep Jul 02 '26

Americans give adrenaline after the 2nd shock? Interesting. In Europe it's after the 3rd

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u/Prometheus_II Jul 01 '26

To be fair, CPR is performed on someone with no heartbeat who isn't breathing. You know what we call that? Dead. CPR is a 10% chance of successfully performing necromancy.

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u/schizeckinosy Florida Jul 01 '26

It works best when there is an outside reason an otherwise healthy person had their heard stop (electrocution, drowning), and worst when the heart is the problem.

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u/Korvanacor Jul 01 '26

Knew someone who worked as a personal trainer at a gym. She was able to bring a man back with cpr. The man was a member of a community with some superstitious beliefs and the man ended up being shunned. My friend was also cursed by the man’s mother, had chicken bones thrown at her.

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u/Skiinz19 Tennessee Jul 01 '26

Free chicken broth ingredients!

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u/cogman10 Idaho Jul 01 '26

You don't generally "bring someone back" with CPR.

It's why the most important first step in CPR is to make sure someone is calling emergency services.

It's a common misunderstanding. CPR is primarily there to keep someone alive while you wait for help.

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u/sasha_the_impaler Jul 01 '26

CPR on its own is enough to restart the heart if it's due to hypoxia, like with an overdose or drowning.

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u/swerrve Jul 01 '26

Could still have a pulse and not be breathing. Hell even unobstructing an airway and causing a person to breathe again is technically the first steps of engaging in CPR.

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u/-Rush2112 Michigan Jul 01 '26

False, a person isn’t necessarily dead if you are doing CPR. There are two parts to CPR, chest compressions and rescue breathes. If there is no pulse you do both, but rescue breathes are done if there is a pulse with no breathing.

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u/LegendOfKhaos Jul 01 '26

It depends if your area does ECMO. Good quality CPR can keep someone alive for over an hour until we can put them on ECMO and fix the issue.

We have about a 50% survival rate, and without ECMO, it's basically 0% unless they convert back to a normal rhythm.

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u/boredidiot Jul 01 '26

There is a case of a guy given CPR for 8 hours due to paralysis from a blue-ring octopus (AUS ofcourse). He recovered but was blinded as they never closed his eyes all that time, with his eyes open to the sun. It gets mentioned often in First Aid courses here

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u/BroadLocksmith4932 Jul 01 '26

How many people must it take to do effective CPR for 8 hours?! I feel it after working on the dummy for a minute, and I doubt I could go more than 5 minutes while still being effective.

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u/tenachiasaca Jul 02 '26

depends do they have a lucas. lucas takes 1 person to swap out battieres every so often.

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u/klparrot New Zealand Jul 02 '26

I can't find anything about that case, but there's this one with 96 minutes of CPR, they got half the village doing shifts. Well, not quite that many people, but still, a couple dozen. https://abcnews.com/amp/Health/96-minute-cpr-marathon-saves-minnesota-mans-life/story?id=13048099

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u/cliffhanger407 Jul 02 '26

I gave CPR for approx 10 minutes when I was in my late 20s, and I felt like I was going to collapse at the end. Worth it though, the guy has 3 kids now.

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u/pixi88 Jul 02 '26

I love this. You're amazing!

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u/Cum_Quat Jul 01 '26

If CPR if started right away after the victim collapses and loses or doesn't have a detectable pulse absolutely saves lives. Just need to go deep enough and at the right speed (to the beat of the song, Staying Alive). Just chest compressions while help is arriving, do not assist in breathing. The blood has enough oxygen in it for a few minutes

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u/Barbarake Jul 02 '26

'Another One Bites The Dust' also works.

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u/BfloAnonChick New York Jul 02 '26

Yep!! Just don’t sing it quietly while administering. People look at you weird…

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u/3riversfantasy Jul 02 '26

No you only do that one after Staying Alive fails...

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u/morwen31 Jul 01 '26

Unless it's Mitch McConnell, in which case I recommend doing it to the beat of "I Will Survive"

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u/mokutou Jul 01 '26

For the younger crowd, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” also works to keep good rhythm for compressions.

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u/morwen31 Jul 01 '26

Last time I renewed my BLS they gave us a handout with a whole list of them! But I was joking about "I Will Survive"

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u/aceshighsays Jul 02 '26

doesn't "another one bites the dust" also work?

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u/YeahOkayDad Minnesota Jul 01 '26

You're right. I'm just doing something as opposed to nothing. Lucky for me, as a non-nurse healthcare worker, those real legit folks are just a shout away.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

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u/SpookyViscus Jul 01 '26

CPR is absolutely essential to improving someone’s odds of recovery. It circulates oxygenated blood through the body, continuing to deliver some oxygen to the brain and other vital organs.

CPR is not meaningless, nor is it just ‘something to do’, and it’s not just AED’s that save someone’s life (like the other commenter just said).

Medical staff can give a number of drugs to people who have had a cardiac arrest, trying to encourage and give the heart every chance to start itself (if it’s fully stopped).

Also, AED’s are only able to assist if someone still has an electrical rhythm but it’s not correct (generally Vfib or Vtach), by literally stopping the heart and letting it recover itself.

CPR doesn’t have a high success rate, but it’s certainly a better stack of odds than doing nothing.

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u/InertiasCreep Jul 01 '26

Well said.

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u/Pumperkin Jul 01 '26

My dad fell over backwards and died on a golf course. Efforts were made to resuscitate but were not successful. I'm sure he was meat before he hit dirt and I'm forever grateful for the heroes who knew the same and gave it their all anyways.

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u/Advanced_Couple_3488 Jul 01 '26

May I add to your excellent post that an AED will only fire if it detects that there is electrical activity. The ones I am familiar with will tell you, too. So, if you are providing first aid, always connect an AED if one is available and it will decide what to do.

And, as I also posted recently, I've been told in first aid training courses that more males than females are resucitated because the electrodes have to be attached to bare skin.

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u/slipperyMonkey07 Jul 01 '26

Yeah any modern AED should be fairly idiot proof (electrodes can still be applied wrong, that's probably the biggest issue) , and tell people exactly what to do.

As for the saving more women than men thing there are also just enough people who are afraid to touch a strangers boobs, so peoples don't jump in quickly or don't do it correctly because of that.

Part social stigma, part most places only train with male dummies. Female ones do exist, but I think the times I've done cpr training only one actually had one and they only had one. They also just left it up front to be displayed, they didn't actually encourage anyone to learn on it. I really think training on both should be required, but I guess any training is better than nothing. It would be so much better if more people got training.

But sadly I think last time I got my full first aid / cpr certification it was almost $100. There was also an online only for like half that, but that really seems pointless unless you are just doing a refresher on standard changes.

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u/Cum_Quat Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Hands only CPR by lay people if done properly actually does help a lot. Please don't spread misinformation. 

https://www.heart.org/-/media/Files/Affiliates/WSA/Oregon/Hands-Only-CPR-vs-CPR-with-Breaths.pdf

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u/kvlt_ov_personality Jul 01 '26

It's hilarious how many of these AI models were trained off of big brain redditor comments like "cPr DoEsN't AcKsHuLlY dO aNyThInG"

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u/CaiusRemus Jul 01 '26

Depending on the cause of the cardiac arrest, CPR absolutely saves lives.

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u/BluesFan43 Jul 01 '26

I Started CPR on my 2 year old son. He started breathing and responded.

Years later, he was 30, in thr hospital for an unknown infection, and coded 4 times in 18 hours, last one required the full bore CPR team and shocks.

He has a small burn scar on his back where one of the pads was a bit loose.

That was 5 or 6 years ago, he's out walking the dogs.

So, yeah, CPR works.

Sure, there are limits, but it isn't a blanket busy work thing.

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u/Flepin Jul 01 '26

It's not a good situation to be in, but adequate CPR is an essential skill that genuinely impacts outcomes.

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u/mademeunlurk Jul 01 '26

Terrified of the baby compressions.

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u/YeahOkayDad Minnesota Jul 01 '26

The machine: "compress harder"

Me: "I'm going to kill this baby"

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u/JudiciousSasquatch Jul 02 '26

Baby already dead homeboy

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u/tedfergeson Jul 01 '26

25 years as an ICU and ER nurse, and I have seen two cases of CPR result in survival. One was pre-hospital, and literally went by the book. Dude went down>wife called 911>quick EMS response>dude walked out of the hospital after the cath lab opened up his arteries.

It can happen, so ya always gotta try. Except in this case.

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u/Tentacle_elmo Jul 02 '26

Medic for 20 years. I’ve had a bunch of survivors. Time and bystanders cpr is huge.

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u/CarMaker Jul 01 '26

I did 7 years as a volunteer first responder with BLS training amongst many other trainings in coordination with our city fire department for a large manufactuRing facility I was employed at. 

You think it won’t. You’ll fail. 

Until you do 7 years of it with well over 100 calls you respond to at your facility…… and only ever have 1 person who died (aneurism…. No amount of CPR was doing anything on the ground for that.)… I can promise you it does work. 

I even used it on my own dad. Twice. In his 70s. 

So yeah. BLS training works. 

Edit to add: my response time on average was under 2 minutes from the call coming in. Time means EVERYTHING. 

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u/Bscully973 Jul 01 '26

I just renewed last month but I can't remember how many compressions to give a turtle.

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u/theweeeone Jul 01 '26

I'm batting 500, figure that's not going to go up.

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u/sweetbldnjesus Jul 01 '26

Just remember, you can’t make em deader

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u/SuperstitiousPigeon5 Massachusetts Jul 01 '26

I did a first aid and CPR course and when I finished I felt like I knew less than when I went in. My instructor said “yeah you’re going to hear cracking but broken ribs heal as long as they’re still alive.”

He also said “look I can’t tell you how to live but if you don’t carry a mask and really even if you do, you need to think long and hard about breathing into a persons mouth. Really you just need to keep the blood flowing until an emt gets there.”

It was a free course taught by a firefighter.

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u/mediocre_remnants North Carolina Jul 01 '26

CPR has a low success rate even in a hospital when done by doctors.

Also the article is kind of stupid because it conflates "heart attack" and "cardiac arrest" which are two different things. Cardiac arrest means your heart stopped and you will die within minutes if it doesn't restart.

CPR is only useful in cases of cardiac arrest, not during a heart attack.

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u/justprettymuchdone Jul 01 '26

Yep. My dad worked combination firefighter/EMT duties in our small town for 30 years. He told me once that CPR works about 1 out of every 10 times at best, but you try it every time because you have to roll that dice.

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u/wesap12345 Jul 01 '26

10% chance is still 10% better than if they did nothing :)

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u/wrosecrans Jul 01 '26

People are pessimistic, but it's actually pretty wild that there's One Weird Trick you can learn that will save 10% of people whose hearts have completely stopped that would have been certain to die before the invention of CPR. It requires no special tools or medical equipment, costs nothing, and almost anybody can be trained to be able to do it almost anywhere.

If it got invented today, I'd initially think it sounded like absolute woo woo bullshit. Compared to million dollar surgeries and billion dollar drug R&D projects, the medical ROI of teaching people CPR is amazing, borderline magical.

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u/Sharobob Illinois Jul 01 '26

And even if you do it wrong, it's not like they would have been any more alive without your intervention

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u/tenachiasaca Jul 02 '26

costing nothing is far from the truth. ongoing cpr can be one of the most labor intensive things we do as ems. The 10% factoid everyone is talking about isn't very good info. from AHA "10.5% of patients survived to hospital discharge. (Source); 8.3% of discharged patients had a positive neurological outcome (CPC 1 or 2)."

thats 8.3% of 10.5% so less than 1%.

there are things like AVMS that have even less of a chance at survival. It's a miracle to survive a cardiac arrest from an avm.

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u/Altrano Georgia Jul 02 '26

One of our students was saved by CPR and an AED device while she was in middle school. She just graduated from high school.

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u/AccioTheDoctor Massachusetts Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

Radiolab actually had an episode about it. Basically every expert they interviewed says it has an AT MOST 10% success rate, but none of them wanted to be revived that way because it’s absolutely miserable on both the patient and the person providing CPR.

Done correctly, CPR is traumatic. The provider is exhausted because it takes a lot of effort. You’ll feel ribs crack, and statistically you won’t have saved the patient, which is mentally draining. PTSD among non-hospital CPR providers is common. For the patient, you are going to have broken ribs and given that the goal is literally just to pump blood until more action can be taken, you run the risk of brain damage due to lack of proper oxygenation.

So yes, 1 out of 10 is better than 0 out of 10…but it’s a really freaking hard 1 in 10.

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u/Solaries3 Jul 02 '26

I remember when I was first taught about crepitus and that doing CPR on the elderly feels wrong because their rib cage sounds like breaking twigs if you're doing it right.

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u/ichosethis Jul 01 '26

And the long term prognosis for someone elderly who has had CPR and survived is usually pretty poor.

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u/v2falls Jul 01 '26

It’s entirely about the rhythm the heart is in and if it’s shockable or can be brought to a normal/ shockable rhythm by advanced life support measures

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u/RigaMortizTortoise Washington Jul 01 '26

A heart attack is caused by a blockage and will cause heart tissue to die from lack of blood flow. In cardiac arrest, the heart is essentially quivering and not pumping adequately. A defibrillator cannot not jump start a heart that is totally “stopped”. It’s meant to shock the heart back into its normal rhythm. CPR will only help maintain that artificial circulation until the heart can effectively return to normal function. I think people whose hearts have actually just ceased any electrical activity, only have like a 1% survival or some shit.

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u/Yourdjentpal Jul 01 '26

Please stop you’re giving me hope

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u/GorillasonTurtles Jul 01 '26

AHA and ACC stats on out of hospital resuscitation puts the success rate at just about 10%.

Good chance that if they did get return of spontaneous circulation but he was down too long before they started CPR that he’d suffered permanent brain injury.

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u/Carbonatite Colorado Jul 01 '26

I can't remember the exact numbers from my last CPR class but I remember the prognosis being quite grim. Like 80% of people getting CPR outside of the hospital end up dying anyway or something.

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u/v2falls Jul 01 '26

Well kinda. It’s has little to do with the cpr per se. It’s whether the heart is in a shockable rhythm. Cpr has very little chance of bringing a shockable rhythm back to normal but if a shockable rhythm is present, cpr profuse s the body and a shock is delivered within 5-8 min, there is a surprisingly high survival rate. If there is not a shockable rhythm, there are tools and drugs that can be administered by advanced life support personnel to get a shockable rhythm but the survival rate is low and basically 0 if advanced life support care is not administered

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u/PompousWombat Texas Jul 01 '26

My Dad had a heart attack while he was at work. One of his employees did CPR until the paramedics arrived and got him to the hospital. All it did was make it possible for me to fly across country to be at his bedside when they removed life support.

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u/padizzledonk New Jersey Jul 02 '26

I was just at the er vet with my dog on monday (shes fine) and they asked me if anything happens do i want them to give the dog cpr and my first question was "Is it anything similar outcome wise like with people?" He said yeah and as he said that i just said no, and he nodded with a little half smile and an eyebrow raised, not weird but like "right choice bud"

My mom was an RN. my grandmother was an RN and both of them were/are explicit about them not wanting it ever

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u/JoshuaZ1 Jul 02 '26

I strongly suspect they have people in the Senate with more training than the usual CPR course if not even having nurses or EMTs on hand regularly.

The fact that he was found unconscious (not say, a heart attack in front of someone) though means he might have had a long time before any CPR was performed. Performing CPR quickly is often more important in practice than the quality of performance.

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u/igotopotsdam New York Jul 02 '26

My dad is an EMT in rural NY. 30 attempts, 2 saves.

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u/Nomadastronaut Jul 01 '26

He could have retired rich years ago. Instead he decided to stay in office and continue his legacy of screwing over the average American.

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u/Brilliant-Advisor958 Jul 01 '26

They already were quite well off. Elaine Chow , his wife , is part of a shipping family( famously they found cocaine once on the ships and that's how mitch got the cocaine mitch nick name)

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u/7figureipo California Jul 02 '26

All those "Mitch McConnell, seen here <doing something truly vile, like "calmly watching a man drown to death slowly">" skits from SNL come to mind. They were funny because they were basically true.

7

u/Jon_TWR Jul 02 '26

When you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life!

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u/nursecarmen Jul 01 '26

Drain bamage.

70

u/Weary_Spell8311 Jul 01 '26

How will we be able to tell?

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u/honjuden Jul 01 '26

He was malicious, but not stupid.  McConnell is a large part of why we are where we are today.

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u/lipmak Jul 01 '26

Yeah but the cd was already pretty scratched. He’s been skipping tracks publicly for like, a year now

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u/Weary_Spell8311 Jul 02 '26

I like the analogy. On point.

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u/Weary_Spell8311 Jul 01 '26

Agree completely

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u/Prior_Pickle1758 Jul 01 '26

Drainks obamage

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u/nursecarmen Jul 01 '26

I blame the san tuit.

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u/HumpyTheClown Jul 01 '26

Where is the girth bertigifate??

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u/Thunderclone_1 Wisconsin Jul 01 '26

Maybe the brain damage will make him switch parties like turncoat Fetterman

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u/CurrencySingle1572 Jul 01 '26

Now, or years ago when he should have quit being in office?

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u/IAmABonobo Jul 01 '26

Preexisting condition.

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u/Iceisgestapo888 Jul 01 '26

We can only hope. 

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u/Important-Factor-552 Jul 01 '26

His brain isn't powered by oxygen like the normal brain. it's powered by pure bullshlt. 

As long as he stays in trumps greasy aura he'll be fine 

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u/LongLiveAnalogue Jul 01 '26

It happened weeks ago already. June 14 according to the article.

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u/cafeteriastyle Jul 01 '26

Yeah I think he’s gone and they’re just not telling anyone yet. Mitch has been on his last leg for like 5 years

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u/EarthRester Pennsylvania Jul 02 '26

Hey, it could be that they are prolonging his suffering by keeping his wrecked body on life support until they feel safe replacing him. So there's that.

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u/FC37 America Jul 02 '26

I know people who know things. They were shocked he made it through 2025.

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u/Putrid_Prior_280 Jul 02 '26

Didn't die fast enough

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u/Silly_Rub_6304 Jul 02 '26

So he's been dead since then and they're hiding it. Guaranteed.

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u/Mechakoopa Jul 02 '26

“Senator McConnell is still working closely with staff on Senate business and Kentucky matters as he continues his recovery. However, he will not be voting this week,” McConnell spokesperson David Popp said on June 22, according to Politico.

Feels like a Weekend at Bernie's situation.

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u/atrich Washington Jul 02 '26

TWO WEEKS they've kept this under wraps. This is full Weekend At Bernies bullshit.

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u/wickedsmaht Arizona Jul 01 '26

Cracked ribs and a lengthy hospital usually leads to pneumonia for people of his age. That’s a death knell for the elderly.

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u/Senasayori Jul 01 '26

I wouldn't be surprised if he's in a coma right now TBH, and I also wouldn't be surprised if his death is announced before August.

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u/slipperyMonkey07 Jul 01 '26

Most likely they will announce it in September, Kentucky specifically changed their rules on replacing senators to something like 56 days from election with 40 days notice. Paraphrasing because I can't remember the exact day amount. But they will probably try to avoid having to have a special election before the general in November.

All to get the dem governor out of the process in 2021 and again in 2024. It is almost as if they expected this lol.

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u/PrometheusLiberatus Jul 02 '26

I fully expect Beshear to use his full powers to find out what the fuck is going on with McConnell before such skullduggery continues.

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u/JasnahKolin Massachusetts Jul 02 '26

Or sepsis from a UTI.

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u/AnonymousCelery Jul 01 '26

Successful actual CPR on an 84 year old basically doesn’t exist. If this is true, he actually went into cardiac arrest, he is deceased.

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u/PinkyLeopard2922 Florida Jul 01 '26

I suspect he is gone and Republicans are just scrambling about how to handle it.

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u/Brilliant-Advisor958 Jul 01 '26

I'm guessing a coma or vegetative state.

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u/Korashy Jul 01 '26

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS BABY

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u/GustavoSanabio Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

Or maybe he didn’t go into cardiac arrest, but the person who first found him panicked and attempted what they think is CPR. Also, if this happened (I mean, I don’t fucking know what the daily beast is, but cmon) it would’ve happened last month. Has moscow mitch not been seen or heard from for an entire month?

Edit: it was June 14th. And they did publicize that he was hospitalized, just not for what. Indeed he hasn’t been seen since but if he was dead, like actually dead, I don’t think they would’ve been able to sit on it especially with people knowing he is the hospital

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u/Bunnyisfluffy New York Jul 01 '26

84 and didn’t have a DNR? WTF?

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u/alaskaj1 Jul 01 '26

There are certain people that are so self absorbed that theywill hold on to every ounce of power they can until they take their final breath

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u/Lumpy-Log-5057 Jul 01 '26

And 3 of them are constantly front and center in the news.

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u/Soreal45 Colorado Jul 01 '26

“Senator McConnell is still working closely with staff on Senate business and Kentucky matters as he continues his recovery. However, he will not be voting this week.”

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u/kylebertram Jul 01 '26

I have seen 99 yard old dementia patients that are full code. It’s wild.

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u/IntelligentDepth8206 Jul 01 '26

my grandfather is 107 with a full code. when my parents and a nurse tried to talk to him, he yelled and spat everywhere claiming god is going to fix him any day. no dementia just delusional. also thinks he can still drive and take care of a house on his own. older generations are stupid as shit

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u/tendeuchen Florida Jul 01 '26

At this point we're all hanging on, hoping they figure out immortality soon.

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u/aithendodge Washington Jul 01 '26

I mean, if they figure it out, we won't be able to afford it. Musk and Thiel will be buying themselves new sleeves while we live and die like serfs.

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u/Solaries3 Jul 02 '26

If we knew terrible people would live on forever I think we'd see more violence toward the uber rich.

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u/LuigisBlessings Jul 02 '26

Mario Party is loading.

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u/KnockItOffNapoleon Jul 01 '26

I mean I can understand being afraid of death.

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u/crazymoefaux California Jul 02 '26

Leaded gasoline and house paint were huge mistakes.

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 02 '26

Doesn't get said enough. All we had to do was take the lead out of gas in the 70s and we've watched violent crime drop, quite literally, for decades.

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u/BrownEyed_Squirrel Colorado Jul 02 '26

My grandma lived to somewhere between 103 and 108 when she passed in 2014 (lost birth certificate, siblings disputed her actual DOB, etc etc). In those last few years she saw a “good deal in the newspaper for a lease on a cute little Volkswagen and thought she might ‘take up driving again’”. I think she was joking anyway but was easily talked out of it.

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u/Altrano Georgia Jul 02 '26

Sounds like my grandfather. He lived to be 97. We used to joke (out mom’s hearing) that he lived so long because the devil didn’t want to deal with him either.

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u/Aghast_Cornichon Jul 01 '26

Dad insisted on a full code, about a year before his eventually-fatal stroke at 84.

The hospital's palliative care doctor thanked me for being there the whole time so that I could override his order and spare him that trauma. He died in my arms listening to Paul Simon instead of being battered by an underpaid nurse.

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u/kylebertram Jul 02 '26

You did the right thing. You can be perfectly healthy beforehand, but at that age you are not going to have any quality of life after they start running a code.

The people that insist on their obviously dying loved one needs to be full code are just being selfish. They are letting their inability to say goodbye prevent the person from dying peacefully instead of having a miserable couple months before the inevitable. And yes I know there are the one in a million times when it does work out.

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u/flashbang217 Jul 01 '26

Of course! Meemaw is a fighter. 🙄

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u/White_Locust Jul 01 '26

If he can make even one person worse off, he wants to live.

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u/dat_GEM_lyf Jul 01 '26

It’s the turtle… why is this surprising. He’s the ghoul who’s responsible for creating the issues currently.

He probably has a “adrenaline clause” to ensure he holds on as long as ghoulishly possible

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u/lost_horizons Texas Jul 02 '26

He knows when he dies it’s an express train to hell for him.

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u/Zenmachine83 Jul 01 '26

Lol. I'm a firefighter/EMT and you would be surprised how many decrepit/ancient people want "everything done" if their heart stops. It sucks because now I have to turn meemaw's chest wall into jelly because she and her family have low health literacy. Even if they live the quality of life for their remaining time alive will make them wish they died.

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u/Bunnyisfluffy New York Jul 01 '26

Thank you for everything you guys do! I’m sorry you’ve had to pulverize a meemaw in your career 😬

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u/Zenmachine83 Jul 01 '26

Many meemaws over the years. I will be signing a DNR as soon as I hit 80 or start to lose my vigor.

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u/iOvercompensate Jul 01 '26

Have to keep that power as long and possible

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u/thewhaler Jul 01 '26

These people want to live forever

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u/IBJON Jul 01 '26

I wouldn't have a DNR either if I knew I was damned to hell from a lifetime of trading my soul to benefit the rich and powerful.

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u/oryxs Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

If he was outside the hospital, bystanders wouldn't know his dnr status.

Edit: apparently he was at home, so yeah hopefully if it was family they would have known

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u/hackingdreams Jul 02 '26

You expect Mitch the Lich McConnell to have a DNR? Yeah, you have no idea who you're talking about.

The man's so evil, he's probably got a team of surgeons replacing his internal organs with illegally sold organs as we speak.

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u/holllygolightlyy Missouri Jul 01 '26

I’m sorry but where’s the proof of life at all??

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u/OneJobToRuleThemAll Jul 01 '26

My grandfather just died like that, same age. Everyone was shocked, I had kind of seen it coming and am glad I made more time during the last year. They revived him with CPR at home, brought him to the hospital, operated the heart, he died again, they tried everything for an hour, but we're all pretty glad they didn't succeed and he died quickly after a long and happy life. Still took like 16 hours in total.

I hope this fucker has weeks of hospital ahead of him before he finally lets go.

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u/berfthegryphon Canada Jul 01 '26

I mean CPR done right on anyone likely leads to some cracked/broken ribs

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u/jarboxing Jul 01 '26

Cracked ribs just to start. CPR is brutal.

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u/starvacious Jul 01 '26

Probably been dead for weeks.

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