Struggling Democratic frontrunner and former Vice President Joe Biden appeared to have a blood vessel burst in his left eye while recently participating in CNN’s town hall on climate change.
A broken blood vessel in the eye, also known as a subconjunctival hemorrhage, can be caused by several things, including high blood pressure, bleeding disorders, blood thinners, or even excessive stress.
Biden, 76, has long been plagued by health issues. In 1988, he suffered an aneurysm that burst and required him to undergo emergency surgery. The then-senator was so close to death that a Catholic priest began preparing to administer the sacrament of last rites. Months later, surgeons clipped a second aneurysm before it burst. Biden then took a seven-month leave from the Senate following the surgery. Describing the operation, he once said, “They literally had to take the top of my head off.”
The former VP’s wife, Jill, said in her recently released autobiography Where the Light Enters, that at the time, she feared her husband would never be the same. “Our doctor told us there was a 50-50 chance Joe wouldn’t survive surgery,” she wrote. “He also said that it was even more likely that Joe would have permanent brain damage if he survived. And if any part of his brain would be adversely affected, it would be the area that governed speech.”
Could this be the cause of Biden’s recent spate of gaffes and verbal blunders, and does it cast troubling doubt on his fitness to be president?
Biden Has Many Reported Health Issues
Doctors removed a benign polyp during a colonoscopy in 1996. In 2003, Biden had his gallbladder removed.
He suffers from asthma and allergies and takes a prescription drug to lower his cholesterol. He has also taken medication for an enlarged prostate.
Biden hasn’t disclosed his medical history since 2008, when doctors found he had an irregular heartbeat.
However, despite this and the ongoing mental gaffes, his wife and others close to Biden nevertheless maintain that he is “a picture of health.”
If he were to win the 2020 presidential election, Biden would be the oldest president ever to be inaugurated.
