Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) continues to be the object of speculation and criticism. His unwillingness to be upfront about his health issues has created some mystery about what he is actually facing.
One of the stories focused on a lump that appeared on his neck. Fox News host Tucker Carlson drew attention to the massive bump on his neck before the midterm elections and noted that he often seemed to use hoodies, scarves, and neck gaiters to hide it.
But now, the lump appears to be gone, according to images from U.S. photojournalists.
If you look at photos over the last several months, it seems that the bump was last visible in mid-November just after Fetterman won the election over rival Republican challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Last week, Fetterman was rushed to the hospital while he was attending a Democrat Senate retreat. He was feeling lightheaded. This was less than a year after he suffered a stroke that nearly killed him.
According to the New York Times, Fetterman has been left with “serious mental health” issues and often cannot understand the words that others are saying to him as a result of the stroke.
The new senator has to use live audio-to-text transcription for everything that he does as a senator. The article in the NYT said that Fetterman’s struggles are significantly worse when he is under any kind of stress.
According to Fetterman’s own words, when he is under stress, trying to understand what other people are saying is like “trying to make out the muffled voice of the teacher in the ‘Peanuts’ cartoon, whose words could never be deciphered.”
After he was released from the hospital this week, Fetterman’s staff said that doctors indicated that he did not have another stroke and that they were checking for signs of seizures.
“John is looking forward to spending some time with his family and returning to the Senate on Monday,” the statement added.
