Great diagnosis. Yes, time for him to go. Are you in the medical profession? Find it hard to believe you're a CPA when you have so much medical knowledge. My doc told me a story about a guy he knows. He said he was an accountant but wanted to do something else so he went back to school and became an attorney. After a few years he went to medical school and is now an MD. He has without saying some incredible intellect. I see the same mind in you. To make my post a gettbigger post I have to add, no homo.
I am an Accountant (CPA).
I did do pre-med as an undergrad student and even took the MCATs (Did really well too). Alas, my parents and older sibling suggested that money is in finance at that time and that medicine was not ideal. I was always on the fence regarding my drive towards medicine, so when my older brother, who was midway through his internal medicine residency, told me that there isn't any real life-changing money in medicine and that I would likely become a slave to both the insurance and pharmaceutical companies, I changed gears and went to do business instead. My older brother is still a practicing gastroenterologist here in NYC at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Ironically, many years later I worked in the hospital's accounting division and dealt with all matters of payroll and accounts receivable. Then, they outsourced their accounting department to a large national accounting firm and we all got let go. Sad story, but resulted in me opening up my accounting business for small-to-medium sized businesses.
Over the years, being a dork, I would still read up on the various medical journals (New England Journal of Medicine for instance) in distinct medical disciplines (Cardiology, Pulmonology, Neurology, Gastroenterology, Nephrology and Oncology). I enjoy talking about new updates in the medical world with my older brother, but in turn he hates talking about anything medicine related outside of his hospital work. He is all "medicined-out" by the time he is out of work and able to just share with friends and family. Medicine (I'm sure some of our in-house, GetBig physicians, PAs and NPs can concur) is highly algorithmic and protocolized. If A is the symptomatic presentation, then you can likely expect B or C or D to happen and then you should do E or F or G. Moreover, for every A that does happen, there is likely numerous differential diagnoses that can explain the phenomenon and might have other interventions. It's an interesting game of pathophysiological detective work.
Over the last few years, I've taken a great interest to the discipline of Neurology and Neurosurgery, as well as the tie-in these aforementioned disciplines have to Cardiology. McConnell's presentation looks a lot like Aphasia (loss of ability to understand or express speech) that was either caused by transient cerebral ischemia (an inadequate blood supply to the brain) to the speech centers of the brain and/or possibly a seizure. I would lean on a transient ischemic attack, but unless we (at this point) see an MRI of the Head and possibly a CT angio of his head and neck coupled with an EEG, it would be hard to know for certain. In others words, pure speculation by a guy that merely reads a lot.
"
1"