402. The Mild

Senator Mitch McConnell has revealed that he fell, lost consciousness, and has been in the hospital for several weeks. He wanted to make this known. He also had a mild case of pneumonia. He characterized the pneumonia as mild. He is now in a rehabilitation center recovering. He is telling everyone now.

The fall resulted in a period of unconsciousness. This is the technical description of what happened. The pneumonia arrived during or around the same period and is being described, by the Senator, as mild. It is possible for a case of pneumonia to be mild. It is also possible for someone who has been in the hospital for several weeks following a loss of consciousness to characterize any additional development as mild by comparison. Both of these things may be true at the same time. The Senator has chosen the word mild. The word is his.

(He did not mention the fall or the hospitalization until he was already in the rehabilitation center recovering. This means that for the weeks during which he was hospitalized, he was hospitalized privately. The hospitalization was real. The weeks were real. They were simply not public. The Senate has mechanisms for this. He has been a member of the Senate for a considerable period of time and is familiar with the mechanisms. He used them.)

The rehabilitation center is where he currently is. The fall is where this began. In between there were weeks of hospitalization and a mild case of pneumonia. He has now informed the public of all three of these things at once, as a package, upon reaching the rehabilitation center. He wanted the timeline understood. The timeline is: fall, unconsciousness, weeks of hospitalization, mild pneumonia, rehabilitation center, announcement. The announcement is the last item on the timeline. It is also the first anyone heard of any of the other items.

He expects to be back to work. He has not specified when. The mild pneumonia is, presumably, resolving. The fall has already occurred. The unconsciousness has already occurred. The weeks of hospitalization have already occurred. What remains is the rehabilitation, and then, according to the Senator, the work. He will be back for it.