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| Photo Credit: AP. |
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, released his health records as he maneuvers to keep questions about Democratic rival John Fetterman’s recovery from a stroke front and center in the hotly contested campaign.
Dr. Rebecca
Kurth in New York City wrote in a four-page letter that she found the
62-year-old heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity to be in “excellent health” in an
annual checkup Thursday.
The letter
noted that Oz has a total cholesterol level that is “borderline elevated” but
can be addressed by diet, and referenced that in 2010 he had a polyp -- a
growth that sometimes can become cancerous -- removed from his colon. An
electrocardiogram — a test that records electrical signals in the heart to
detect heart problems — he had Thursday came out normal.
“Your
examination is healthy, and the blood tests are favorable,” Kurth wrote. She
recommended no medication.
The release
of the health records comes as Oz is trying to close a gap in the polls and is
increasingly making Fetterman’s fitness to serve a central theme in his
campaign.
Fetterman,
53, has been silent about releasing medical records or providing access for
reporters to question his doctors, now more than four months after he suffered
a stroke in May that has had lingering effects on his speech and hearing.
Two
editorial boards, of The Washington Post and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, have
called for Fetterman to release medical records after his refusal to debate Oz
more than once. The Post-Gazette said that should include cognitive tests and
making his doctors available to reporters.
It said Oz
should release his medical records, too — a request to which Oz quickly agreed.
In a
statement, Oz said “voters should have full transparency when it comes to the
health status of candidates running for office.” Oz, a heart surgeon, is best
known for “The Dr. Oz Show,” which he hosted on daytime TV for 13 years.
Fetterman’s
campaign again made no commitment Friday to releasing records or providing access
to his doctors.
Rather, he
attacked Oz in a statement that revives some of the themes Fetterman has
advanced during the campaign — including highlighting long-standing criticism
that Oz often promoted questionable products and medical advice on his show.
“In June, I released a letter from my doctor
where he clearly stated that I am fit to serve,” Fetterman said in the
statement. “Dr. Oz built his entire career by lying to people about health. I
trust my actual doctors over the opinion of a charlatan who played one on TV.”
Fetterman
has been receiving speech therapy and the letter from his cardiologist said he
will be fine and able to serve in the Senate if he eats healthy foods, takes
prescribed medication and exercises.
The race in
the presidential battleground to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey
could help determine control of the closely divided Senate, and Democrats view
it as perhaps their best opportunity to pick up a seat out of just a handful of
close races nationally.
While it is
customary for presidential candidates to release health records, there is no
such custom in races for the U.S. Senate. Some U.S. senators have, in the past,
released medical records when running for president.
Oz, who has
been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, also has questioned Fetterman’s
truthfulness in disclosing the effects of his stroke.
Fetterman,
the state’s lieutenant governor, maintains that doctors expect him to make a
full recovery from the stroke and that he is quickly improving, cognitively
unaffected and maintaining the healthiest habits of his life.
Fetterman
suffered the stroke on May 13, four days before he easily won his Democratic
primary. His victory came hours after he underwent surgery to implant a
pacemaker with a defibrillator. Three weeks after the stroke, Fetterman
revealed that he had “almost died” and his cardiologist’s letter disclosed he
had a serious and potentially fatal heart condition.
Fetterman
has been campaigning and speaking at public events, but speaks haltingly at
times, garbles an occasional word and struggles to hear through background
noise and quickly process what he’s hearing. He recently agreed to one debate
against Oz, to be held Oct. 25, though Oz had pressed for more.
Fetterman
will receive closed-captioning at the debate, but the candidates are still
bickering about the terms. Oz is pushing to expand it to 90 minutes, from 60
minutes, to account for any delays from closed captioning.
Publicly,
top Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have sought to calm party nerves
over Fetterman’s condition, saying they are confident he is capable of serving.
Still,
Fetterman has given reporters limited access to question him directly, doing
just a few interviews since the stroke, all through video with
closed-captioning to help him with auditory processing.
In a 2016
Senate contest in Illinois, Democrat Tammy Duckworth released years of medical
records when there were questions about the fitness of Republican U.S. Sen.
Mark Kirk, who had suffered a stroke in 2012.
Kirk was still suffering the effects of the stroke four years later, and, like Fetterman, did not provide access to his doctors or medical records. Still, Duckworth said during a debate that she thought Kirk was capable of doing the job but “the problem is he’s not doing it.”
Late in the
race, Kirk’s campaign released a one-page letter from a treating physician that
said the senator had made a “full cognitive recovery” while still speaking
haltingly, dealing with limited use of his left leg and the inability to use
his left arm, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time.
Kirk ended
up losing his reelection bid.
Associated
Press medical writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report. Follow Marc
Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter.
Follow the
AP for full coverage of the midterms at
https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at
https://twitter.com/ap_politics.