McCain in ‘excellent health,’ doctor proclaims
Published 10:29 pm Friday, May 23, 2008
WASHINGTON — Doctors for John McCain gave the 71-year-old presumptive Republican presidential nominee a clean bill of health Friday but refused to discuss the medical issues he can be expected to face over the next four years.
McCain’s most apparent health risk is skin cancer, his doctors indicated as they discussed the removal of his four malignant melanomas and other less serious skin cancers. The most serious was an “invasive” melanoma on his lower left temple that required extensive surgery in August 2000.
But the doctors, in a conference call arranged by McCain’s campaign, said they found no recurrence of that melanoma.
That fact, his dermatologist Dr. Suzanne Connolly said, makes his prognosis look good, although he remains at risk and must protect himself from sun.
McCain’s father died at age 70 of a stroke and McCain smoked for two decades, but doctors said they found no heart disease and noted that McCain walked the Grand Canyon rim to rim in 2006.
“Senator McCain enjoys excellent health and displays extraordinary energy,” said Dr. John Eckstein, an internist and McCain’s personal physician.
“While it is impossible to predict any person’s future health,” Eckstein added, “today I can find no medical reason or problems that would preclude Senator McCain from fulfilling all the duties and obligations of president of the United States.”
Concerned about voter’s reaction to McCain’s age, his campaign showed 1,173 pages of medical records to reporters and released a five-page summary.
Polls find two-thirds or more voters say they are not concerned about McCain’s age. But recent Quinnipiac polls of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania found voters more concerned about his age than the gender or race of his Democratic foes.
Neither of them — Hillary Rodham Clinton, 60, or Barack Obama, 46 — have opened their medical records for scrutiny.
McCain’s campaign sought to blunt the information by disclosing it the day before the Memorial Day holiday.
