Was gonna make a wisecrack about Wolraich predicting "Biden won't last", but I thought again. Seems to me from anecdotals, what happened to Bernie actually happens more commonly, I think, to 60-somethings! By the time they are in their 70's and 80's, they've either survived a heart procedure, or they kicked the bucket.

So I am dropping the ageism thing and moving on to razz this part of the story: Bernie trying to take political advantage of his situation:

Later Wednesday, Sanders tweeted that he was "feeling good" and used the situation to tout his "Medicare for All" health care proposal....

Right, but only because hospital procedures are covered 100% under Part A with a $1,000 deductible. If you had previously gotten the proper preventative medicine that would avoid having to get stents (which are iffily dangerous and controversial, by the way), Senator, now that would only be covered 80% under Part B. Unless of course you had the money to buy expensive top-of-the-line supplemental insurance and top-of-the-line drug plan. Or if you enrolled yourself in an extremely limited network Advantage Plan  to save those premiums and then found out the co-pays were ridiculous for proper treatment. So in the latter case you wouldn't be seeing the best providers who knew prevention, so you'd be going broke and still end up in the hospital.

My point: this is why hospitals are the current major cause of our huge health care costs in this country and keep growing all the time.  Being non-profit doesn't stop institutions from growing into monster behemoths feeding on themselves with highly paid bureaucratic jobs and ever rising revenue and billing up the kazoo for god knows what including lawyers to defend from increasing malpractice...And not fully covering the costs of the best preventative medicine gets ya: lotsa money spent on hospital procedures, ever flowing, 100% covered.

I talk a little about this based only on my experience with getting a stent put in and what the doctor told me. If there was an actual emergency it's likely Sanders was having a heart attack. That's scary but no quite as scary as it sounds. I had three heart attacks and didn't even realize it. Or I realized something was very wrong but I ignored it because I didn't have health insurance. My heart attacks were likely caused by over ten years of untreated diabetes until it got so bad I had to see a doctor. In some ways my situation is worse than Sanders in that if I wasn't so active hiking 6 days a week in the mountains I probably would have died. But when diagnosed it wasn't an emergency that needed immediate attention but needed to be dealt with quickly, within a couple of weeks. 

Any heart attack causes loss of heart function. I've lost 50% of my heart function. Sanders has likely lost heart function. How much depends on whether this was his first heart attack and the severity of the attack. Loss of heart function isn't as bad as it sounds. The heart has a lot of over capacity. How much of your heart function are you using reading this post. 5%, less maybe? Now that my diabetes is under control and my heart problems fixed I feel fine and can even do a moderate amount of work. But the moment I try any vigorous activity it feels like my body is shutting down. My arms and legs get wobbly. I have no stamina and my strength has taken a big hit. 

This will have some but probably not a big effect on his ability to be president. Much depends on how much heart function he's lost. He's not going to be able to jog or bike around the White House like Bush did. He's not going to be playing basketball like Obama. But the moderate physical activity of reading briefing papers or having meetings is likely well within his ability. I don't sense any loss of ability to read and think. It feels like my mental acuity is as strong as it's every been. But the old adage: If you're losing your mind how would you be able to tell? 

Did Bernie Sanders Have a Heart Attack?

Without a close look at Sanders’ medical chart, it’s impossible to make a definitive diagnosis, and I have not reviewed the details of his case other than what has been reported to the media by his campaign. But even the scant information we have—that he had stents inserted overnight following an acute cardiac episode—is enough to be able to say: This was very likely a heart attack.         

Harvard ER doc:

Message: Here I am just dandy, the new and improved healthy vigorous Bernie, can even smile now, just like Tony the Tiger I feel grrrreat: