We had a woman president for 85 minutes??? Thanks anesthesia!
An anesthetized president reminds people we can temporarily take away consciousness
There’s a joke in operating rooms that anything that goes wrong in a surgery can be blamed on anesthesiologists. Well, now you can add “women in political power” to the list! On Friday, November 19, 2021, President Joe Biden had a colonoscopy as part of his routine physical at Walter Reed Medical Center. Presumably the president did not want to be aware while he had the colon camera in his kiester, and he recieved enough anesthesia that he wasn’t able to be president for a little while. Moderate to heavy sedation means a lot of people, including presidents, have little to no memory of their procedure. One of the amazing things about anesthsia, is that our medications can temporarily make someone unconscious, and most patients recover in a pretty short span of time. So Joe did the sensible thing, invoking the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution, and making Vice President Kamala Harris the acting president for about 85 minutes. It’s not how I imagined having our first woman president, but I’ll take it.
Screening for colon cancer with colonoscopy is super important, and recommended for all people over age 45, and some people under age 45 with certain risk factors. Millions of Americans have screening colonoscopies every year. The vast majority of people in the US prefer to have some sort of sedation or anesthesia for their colonoscopy, ranging from light sedation (a little relaxed, but still aware of the procedure and experiencing some discomfort/pain) to general anesthesia (completely unconscious). Only bout 2% of colonoscopy patients opt for no sedation at all.
Other presidents have had colonoscopies under anesthesia:
In 1985, Ronald Reagan became the first president to undergo a colonoscopy - a relatively new procedure at the time. And it turned into a big deal. The president’s brother had a tumor in his colon removed surgically, and physicians worried the president was also at risk. Becuase of the demands of the presidency, he begged off having a more complete evaluation. However, after the president’s stool was found to contain blood, his physician Dr. Hutton lobbied hard for a colonoscopy. The procedure revealed a tumor with an ulcer that was causing the bleeding. The next day, the president had about 2 feet of colon removed (hemicolectomy).
In July 2002 and 2007, George Bush had a routine colonoscopy, and temporarily placed Vice President Dick Cheney in charge for about 2 hours each. While Governor of Texas, Bush was found to have polyps in his colon, and so needed ongoing routine screening.
Donald Trump’s colonoscopy during his presidency was conducted in secrecy and without the benefit of anesthesia. In November 2019, the then president made an unscheduled trip to Walter Reed National Medical Center. In her tell-all book about her time in the Trump White House, Stephanie Grisham strongly implies the president didn’t want jokes about his colonoscopy on late night TV and refused to recieve anesthesia for the uncomfortable procedure because he didn’t want to sign over any authority to the VP Mike Pence. In a job where one’s movements are followed meticulously, the unscheduled trip lead to widespread speculation that the president’s health was in serious jeopardy.
Thankfully, Joe Biden’s routine health screening and colonoscopy, with accompanying humdrum medical report, appears to mean we’re moving on from the bizarre, secret, sometimes outright lies about presidential health we had during the Trump era. ouback to the humdrum medical reports we previously enjoyed.
Happy 79th birthday, Mr. President, and here’s to another year of good health and no colon cancer. And thank you, Kamala Harris, for filling in so the president could get the healthcare screening with the comfort from anesthesia that he deserves.
