John Roberts and the Lightning Stroke

Posted by Guest Blogger at 5:22 AM on July 31, 2007.

This post, written by Phoenix Woman, originally appeared on FireDogLake

By this time, I'm sure everyone knows by now that John Roberts is in the hospital for what was originally just stated to be a simple fall but is now reported to be a seizure similar to one he suffered in 1993. He's in the hospital for overnight observation; they think he's going to be OK, but...

But.

Up near my parents' home in the boonies, there was, until last Saturday, a 20-room mansion. It had seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and a grand piano, as well as several precious works of art. It burned to the ground this weekend, and nobody knows why just yet, but it doesn't look like arson. There was a boom like a lightning stroke as the propane tank blew up. It was a sizable tank, so the boom could be heard all the way into town.

Things that seem so stable can, for good or ill, turn to dust at the blink of an eye or a stroke of lightning. John Roberts, who was picked by Bush in part because of his relative youth and health, was supposed to ensure archconservative dominance of the Supreme Court for decades to come. Things and situations we think of as unchanging and permanent can be irreversibly altered faster than we can describe the process.

Something for us all to contemplate.

UPDATE from Raw Story: Roberts May Be Diagnosed With Epilepsy

Chief Justice John Roberts' seizure Monday -- in which he fell 5 to 10 feet and hit his head on a dock near his summer home in Maine -- could be an indication that the nation's top jurist has epilepsy, a neurologist said on CNN Tuesday.

"By the strictest definition, epilepsy is two or more seizures that have no known cause," Dr. Wendy Wright, an Emory University neurologist said on CNN's American Morning. "And from what we're hearing this is the Chief Justice's second seizure."

Roberts suffered a benign idiopathic seizure, meaning it does not have a known cause, such as an infection or head injury, Wright said. After being hospitalized overnight after a seizure, Roberts is expected to be released Tuesday from a Rockport, Maine, hospital, a hospital spokesman told reporters.

President Bush called Roberts Tuesday morning, according to White House press secretary Tony Snow.

"The chief justice assured him that he was doing fine," Snow said. "The president was reassured."

According to a local media report, ambulance crews responded "to a call at about 2 p.m. Monday of a man who had fallen 5 to 10 feet and landed on a dock, hitting the back of his head. The patient was ashen and was foaming at the mouth."

"It is difficult to say whether he'll be diagnosed with epilepsy," Wright said. "But now we know that he has had another seizure, so perhaps he will go on to be diagnosed with epilepsy."

"By definition, someone who has had more than one seizure without any other cause is determined to have epilepsy," Dr. Marc Schlosberg, a Washington Hospital Center neurologist who is not involved in the Roberts case told AP.

Roberts spent Monday night in the hospital in after falling five to 10 feet and falling on a dock on Hupper Island, Maine, where Roberts has a summer home. News reports indicate the seizure did not cause Roberts to lose consciousness.

Tagged as: supreme court, roberts, seizure

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