Is It Really Possible To Faint From Heat, As Clinton Claims?

forbes.com ^ | September 11, 2016 | Emily Willingham

[ransomnote]

During a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York City, Hillary Clinton reportedly began to feel unwell and needed to leave. As she was entering a waiting vehicle, video shows aides helping her into the car as her legs seemed to buckle beneath her.

Naturally, speculation about that buckling flamed out all over social media. People who dislike Clinton leaped to point to what they view as yet more evidence that she’s too elderly or frail or ill or something to be president. Those who want to tamp down that kind of speculation asserted that it was a hot day and she likely felt faint from the heat.

So then we got assertions on Twitter that fainting doesn’t look like that or that one does not “faint from heat.”

FaintHeat

But people do faint from heat, and yes, fainting does look like that. A statement from the Clinton campaign following the event said:

Secretary Clinton attended the September 11th Commemoration Ceremony for just an hour and thirty minutes this morning to pay her respects and greet some of the families of the fallen. During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter’s apartment, and is feeling much better.

Clinton herself came out of her daughter’s apartment building within hours of the episode and said that it was “a beautiful day” and that she was feeling better.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Absolutely possible to faint from the heat and, since she was wearing body armor which can be quite warm, it is even likely that someone could faint from the heat. Especially if they were in poor health to begin with.

[Daffynition]

At that hour of the morning...it was not 80*

[ransomnote]

Someone up-thread commented that she wore a “table cloth” to prior events to hide a cooling vest worn by MS patients and helpfully provided a link. The link was inoperable so I hunted up the brand name suggested and it looks like it could have been what was under her clothing at those events where she wore baggy clothing unfavorably compared to furniture slipcovers and vacumn cleaner bags. Here’s a link that works. http://www.activemsers.org/firstlinetechstndvest.html

Right away I can see that the need for a cooling vest to hug the body in order to cool it, would be a problem for Hillary. In this picture - it’s designed for a man so she’d have to wear more “vest” than otherwise needed just to cover her bust. And she’s gained weight. Best explanation for that bizarrely baggy housecoat outfits she wore earlier.

[ransomnote]

I rode on horseback on a deceptively hot summer morning for 1.5 hours. When I got off the horse, my legs did not support my weight for even a moment and I wilted all the way to the ground as if boneless. Once there, I had no ability to sit up or move away from the shifting hooves of a bored horse. At no time did I have any body rigidity that she shows in this video.

With her medical history - how wise is it for her staff to assume that no treatment is needed to address pre-existing conditions (blood clots) or the new claim that she had pneumonia? She keels over at a public even when she has no record of ever having done so in years of public appearances in warm/hot days and her handlers rule out any possible complication and just slap her face a little in the van until she revives and then they drive her on to her daughters house to go on with her social schedule????

Let me guess that they already equipped CHelsea’s house with full medical suite so she can go “visit” whenever she has a “chance”?

[castlegreyskull]

Who is the prince that will seek who wore that slipper?

[Jeff Chandler]

Who is the prince that will seek who wore that slipper?

Prince Valium?

[castlegreyskull]

Now that is funny! I think you need to promote that nickname for this guy.

[sig226]

How much do I have to donate to get her to make a speech in Phoenix?

[ozzymandus]

In Kansas, we call it “indoors”.

[joshua c]

Exactly. Adjust her meds. Prop her up until Nov 8th.

[Sir Bangaz Cracka]

Google search for “body stiffens prior to a collapse” yields this:

Tonic Seizures*

These are a brief stiffening of the muscles of the whole body which cause it to go rigid. If a person is standing, they will fall rapidly to the ground. Recovery is swift, but injuries can be sustained. These seizures can also occur in sleep.

*Note: Tonic and Atonic seizures are also known as drop attacks and are more likely to occur in people with severe epilepsy and multiple seizure types.

[FredZarguna]

Pretty typical to even moderate temperatures for NYC in September. A room full of people at ordinary temperatures in the campaign season anywhere in the country would almost certainly be warmer and far more stifling.

I seem to recall Hillary was on the subway this summer; the subway can easily be 15° warmer than the street and she had no problems except for being unable to work a Metro card. (The lower level of Grand Central on 42nd Street to pick up the train over to Flushing to see the Mets could easily be over 100 degrees, and people pack into that train like sardines. Never seen anyone pass out...)

[LaMudBug]

Yes, it could be many medical things that caused this event, but IMHO it was a STAGED event, citing a medical reason, to move the news cycle forward from her calling Trump supporters DEPLORABLES. By 2pm she was on her way to her home from her daughter’s, saying she was feeling OK. Let’s see what happens on Monday when she was scheduled to go to the West Coast.

I am a DEPLORABLE for TRUMP and IMHO the worst thing that could happen for Trump would be for Mrs C to die before Nov or for the DemoRats to successfully replace her with Biden, ?anyone.

We shall see... this will be an interesting week...

Take care, be safe and DEPLORABLE...

[FredZarguna]

If Hillary shows up in Phoenix in the middle of August what will happen, she simply bursts into flames?

Only if she touches holy water or a crucifix...

[Frank_2001]

“Who is the prince that will seek who wore that slipper?”

Probably some Saudi sheik! ;)

[Rannug]

Hell yes one can faint from the heat.

[doorgunner69]

em> 42nd Street to pick up the train over to Flushing to see the Mets could easily be over 100 degrees, and people pack into that train like sardines.

Please, you are freaking me out.

[FredZarguna]

Please, you are freaking me out.

Standing capacity in a typical subway car is nominally 202, but they get about 250 in at 5:00 PM on the day of a ballgame. If it makes you feel any better, only about 3 or 4 people per hundred have serious communicable diseases, although the mental cases making religious/political/racist rants that ride all the way over to Citi Field seem to have taken a major upswing with the new mayor.

Civilization.

Oh, and believe me, the crowd and the heat is WAY BETTER than what you run into when for some reason you find yourself almost alone on the train through Queens at 4:00 AM.

Take the , and watch out for this guy (I understand he bites):

[Oztrich Boy]

In 80 degree weather?

I have. school assembly warmish, but I wasn't feeling anything but bored. Then I was lying on the ground with people looking at me concerned for some reason I could not figure out.

[doorgunner69]

No thanks, I will stay here on the slope of my dormant volcano at 500’ watching the ocean with just the wife and five cats to crowd me. It is 91° though, warmer than usual.