What will it take for very smart physicians at Walter Reed to realize that Donald Trump is afflicted with dementia and the effects of long term stimulant addiction, and stop him from acting like a 74-year-old teenager?
What level of crazy does Trump need to exhibit for these very knowledgeable and esteemed professionals to realize that he lacks competence to make important medical decisions for himself? Trump is clearly unable to understand the consequences of his actions. And listen to his latest videotapes: he can barely manage to put two cohesive sentences together.
It’s clear to even laymen watching this unfold: Trump cannot make a knowing and voluntary decision about his own medical care. He is unable to provide lawful consent.
A guardian must be appointed to oversee his medical care.
I am not a psychiatrist or a cardio-pulmonary specialist. But I do know a few things about common sense, law and reason. Are these Walter Reed doctors, patient advocates and administrators so educated that they miss the basics?
Competence is the first hurdle to consider in making the determination about whether an elderly patient is able to make calls about his own medical care.
Trump’s Sunday afternoon drive around Walter Reed is evidence per se of his lack of judgment. He behaves recklessly and without any comprehension of consequences.
As he left the hospital, Trump spread aerated COVID-19 positive particles in his wake. Two Secret Service agents trapped with him in The Beast, a hermetically sealed presidential limousine, have been endangered for no good reason. They can become ill or Serve as unwitting vectors of the disease, transmitting virus to families, friends and Secret Service colleagues.
Trump’s latest caper reminds me of tales about my early childhood. Apparently, I was a hyperactive child. I did not like naps and refused to go to bed at night. I wanted to stay up with the adults and watch Jack Paar after the local news and see what they were all laughing about.
The only way my beleaguered parents could get me to sleep when I was an infant was to put me in a car seat and take me for a ride around the neighborhood.
When I got a little older, they put me on a rocking horse next to my bed. “Sam” was a bay gelding with a Western saddle. My folks would lift me onto my plastic equine, then listen from the next room. When they heard the thunk, me falling onto shag carpet, they knew I was asleep and could be transferred to bed.
I grew out of all of the above by age 6, sadly transferring Sam to Brother Joe. But apparently Trump still requires that kind of stimulation in order to calm down and rest.
This is a red flag for every citizen watching this drama unfold, as we sit socially distanced, masked and slack-jawed in the cheap seats.
In normal circumstances, when people are confined to mental institutions or addiction treatment centers they don’t have the run of the place. There are rules prohibiting leaving. When people are admitted to the hospital, leaving before discharge is considered as a departure “AMA,” against medical advice. They are not allowed to simply walk back in, but must be triaged, re-evaluated and re-admitted.
If Trump had a sudden panic attack in the limo or his oxygen dipped or blood pressure escalated, who is responsible? He remains admitted to Walter Reed; their personnel apparently permitted him to leave his suite and escape their immediate supervision. Not even a nurse accompanied him.
That decision was foolhardy at best, and may affect their liability insurance as well as their fine reputation. What insurer provided coverage for a medical facility that does not properly supervise critically ill patients?
What other medical center In the world ignores protocols and regulations, putting other patients and hospital personnel at risk by allowing a highly contagious individual with a deadly disease to walk out the front door and drive a few laps around the premises?
Trump’s judgment has fled to brutish beasts. It’s time that doctors find their reason. Trump should be required immediately to appoint a guardian to recommend and oversee all medical treatment. The guardian can throttle efforts by this out-of-control drunken lord of a president to spread this virus any further than he already has.
Finding a member of the Trump clan who is stable, sober and intelligent enough to serve as Trump’s medical guardian may be a challenge. The one who has a clear understanding of his overall issues, as well as new medical and cognitive ones, is Trump’s niece, Dr. Mary Trump. Dr. Conley should give her a call and ask for assistance.
It is never a good sign when the inmates take over the institution, even when the institution is an esteemed medical facility and the inmate is the President of the United States. In most cases doctors depend on patients’ family members to facilitate compliance with rules, even when patients don’t approve of them.
Melania has a slight headache and in any case she’d rather not. What’s the excuse for the rest of them?