Comments on: Chief Justice has seizure, falls; Court says he has recovered

By: Marc Shepherd

Marc Shepherd — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:49:25 +0000

According to several news reports, “benign” is simply the accepted medical term for seizures like this one. Several doctors not connected with the case said that this is the accepted terminology, and it was not “wordsmithed” because Roberts is the patient.

By: Phillip Edens

Phillip Edens — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:42:23 +0000

I really think you guys are jumping to conclusions here that there is spinning going on. Keep in mind the last time he had one was in 1993, thats a long time.

After researching the Medical Journal’s these things do happen and sometimes found to be caused by hypogylcemia,among others. So lots of things can cause these.

I think most likely the Chief had a seizure like they’ve described and he’ll be back on the court of OT 07 just as sharp as he’s always been.

By: steve jaros

steve jaros — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:50:55 +0000

Agreed. Looks like some spinning is going on here.

Let’s all hope the CJ does fully recover and isn’t prone to this in the future.

By: Daniel Thomas

Daniel Thomas — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:34:10 +0000

The word-smithing here is interesting. How can they be certain that it is benign when they don’t know what caused it (which is what idiopathic means). You could say that the result was benign since he suffered no serious affects…but that is not how conditions are usually defined medically. If I were in his shoes I’d be worried. It’s happened before. He’s lucky he didn’t fall off the dock and drown. Where will he be the next time it happens? And if they don’t know what causes it how can they be sure that it won’t get worse as the brain decays with age? Lots of questions here for court watchers to ponder.