Last weekend, Richard Dawkins had a medical emergency.
Richard Dawkins has suffered a minor stroke, said the Sydney Opera House on Friday in a statement.
He is recuperating and is expected to “make a full or near full recovery”.
The well-known atheist was scheduled to deliver talks in Australia and New Zealand, which have been cancelled.
“On Saturday night Richard suffered a minor stroke, however he is expected in time to make a full or near full recovery. He is already at home recuperating,” said the announcement. “This unfortunately means Richard will be unable to make his planned Australian and New Zealand tour.”
“He is very disappointed that he is unable to do so but looks forward to renewing his plans in the not too distant future.”
Despite our differences, we should all hope for his full recovery.
As the son of a recent stroke victim (also minor, but scary nonetheless), I can sympathize with what Juliet must have felt. It’s never good news to hear that your father has been rushed to the hospital for any reason. But stroke is among the worst reasons. So much dread and mortal fear about the situation and what this may mean for their future health. Non-portentous, that’s what I’m hoping for.
Well, the great news is they think he will recover fully! And nowadays they’re getting so much better at dealing with strokes.
I won’t pray for him, but I’ll cheer for his doctors! Go modern medicine!
How scary. I wish him a full recovery.
Yeah, that’s not something you’d wish on anyone, no matter how much bad blood there might be. Here’s hoping there’s no lasting damage.
I’ve been helping to deal the aftermath of strokes for about thirty years, first with my father, then the Redhead. I don’t wish a stroke on anyone. I hope for a full recovery for RD.
I hope he recovers quickly. My father has had several strokes, and it is terrifying for everyone concerned, and the recovery process isn’t much fun either. I don’t look forward to some of the comments I’m sure I’ll read in the skeptic groups, blaming others for it, though.
I do hope he is able to recover with a minimum of discomfort.
No matter how odious a person might be, a stroke is a bad thing to happen to anyone, and I wouldn’t wish one upon my worst enemy.
Sadly, if the situation was the reverse and PZ or Rebecca Watson were the ones suffering a serious health affliction, I doubt he would refrain of mocking them or wishing them the worst.
Sorry, from mocking them. (English is not my first language and all that.)
Here’s to an easy recovery for Mr. Dawkins.
Marcelo @8: Totally uncalled for.
Oh fuck. Strokes are so damn scary. I hope this was indeed minor, in every sense, and that Mr. Dawkins has a quick and uneventful recovery, and hopefully, no more strokes in the future.
Marcelo @ 8:
I most seriously doubt that would be the case, and in any event, this is hardly the proper time and place to try and score a point, don’t you think? What someone else might do in such a situation is not relevant, it is what you do that speaks to the person you are.
Throwaway @ 1:
I’m sorry to hear, strokes are bloody terrifying. I hope you are all doing well, have support, and the recovery is a good one.
I have said elsewhere, I hope he has an easy and full recovery.
Shoot, no-one deserves a stroke. I hope Dawkins is back on his feet and fully functional in no time.
Strokes are scary for anyone. For a person as dedicated to knowledge as Dawkins has been, the potential loss is horrible. I hope he and his family recover fully.
Glad to hear he’ll make a recovery, but it won’t be long before the Christian vultures start crowing about how the stroke was a punishment from God.
I hope he has a full and rapid recovery.
Nasty, Wish him well
@8 I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t at least part of me that agrees with you. This is not a part of myself I’m particularly proud of, or even like, but it is there. My zeal tends to outweigh my rationalism and human decency much more than I’d like.
I wish RD well, I hope he has a speedy and full recovery. Should there be any kind of silver lining to this tragedy, may it perhaps allow him insight and empathy with those he would otherwise belittle.
I won’t pray for him either, but I too hope he recovers. Stroke is not a good thing to happen to anyone, but unlike my grandmother and aunt he has far advanced medicine at his disposal so his chances are good.
Marcelo, I do not wish to pile on you, but speculating now about what “the other” would do if it happened to PZ at this time is neither rational and skeptical, nor decent. You should not do such things no matter how many reasons you have to think your speculation is correct.
That’s pure speculation and projection, and in all honesty, I really very much doubt it. Dawkins says socially offensive things, including some tone-deaf ignoring of the people behind his proclamations, but I don’t actually think he’s ever stooped to personal attacks, mockery, or reveling in another’s misfortune. In fact, that’s a rather nasty slur.
My dad had what we thought was a minor stroke a few months ago while working away from home, more than 200 miles away… turned out it was a seizure, not a stroke, but those were the worst few days of all our lives in my family.
I hope Dawkins has good care and makes a full recovery.
Here’s hoping he recovers soon and quickly. I have my disagreements with the man but he deserves health.
If there is one thing I wish upon him, it might be some introspective reflection as a result of this health scare. Followed by a return to good health.
“Minor stroke” usually refers to a Transient Ischemic Attack, a kind of warning shot that something is amiss with regards to cerebral perfusion. By definition it means symptoms resolve within 24 hours. But it needs follow-up with blood tests and ultrasound.
Richard needs to sort out his risk factors in the coming days. I wish him all the best.
Wishing him a speedy recovery
Or to subdural hematomas. My father suffered from three such strokes… in three months, each one exhibiting worsening symptoms, followed by an hospitalization, a trepanation, an increasingly large list of drugs to take, and slower recoveries… The “Minor” term the surgeons and nurse keep repeating to me is really starting to feel like polite bullshiting.
If you are prone to falls or banged your head it’s a possibility, especially if you take blood thinners. Not otherwise.
In my father’s case, it’s not banging his head, it’s excessive blood pressure.
And since after a trepanations, doctors prescribe huge doses of Corticosteroid, which have the side effect of causing hypertension in healthy people and worsening it in those who already suffer from it…
Wishing Richard Dawkins a swift recovery, no ifs and buts.
@Marcelo
He has explicitly stated in the past that schadenfreude is not his cup of tea, and refrained from mocking even his theist opponents in their unfortunate hour. He may be terribly misguided in some of the things he says (and it’s a long list), but I don’t for a minute think that actual malice is involved.
@tbtabby
Could we wait until they actually do, instead of speculating about it? Regardless of what one thinks of Christians, reveling at another’s misfortune is not a Christian thing to do.
He’s tweeting, so I assume he is feeling better.
alkisvonidas, #32
Agreed. His stroke and his opinions are completely different things. This is not the time to bring in those topics with ifs and buts. He’s a human being with loved ones and a stroke causes him and them the same pain and discomfort as it would to anyone else.
The Guardian says he’s already back on the Twitter, so “Yay” for a swift recovery, I guess, with a side order of “Oi, Dawkins, no!” for the Twitter feed.
I wish him a speedy recovery, and I also hope that no one ever uses this to mock (or excuse) any of his future endeavors.
Glad for him and his family that he’s recovering.
My father is also a stroke survivor so my sympathies go to Dawkins and his family. I’m glad the recovery seems to be ocurring very fast.
@36 carlie
You might as well wish that nobody ever blames his stroke on feminists. Inevitable things are inevitable.
Isn’t it interesting (it is to me, I hope it is to others) that so many of we, professed atheists and rationalists, express hopes and wishes for recovery of a fellow atheist? In no way am I saying it’s wrong to do so, but it’s interesting the things where our social conditioning kicks in and we just need to express that hope/wish. If he were being strictly rational, would he even want hopes/wishes any more than thoughts/prayers?
I do hope that he makes a full recovery, of course. I was just struck by the depth of the supernatural’s hold on the human imagination, as expressed in social ritual.
/linguist hat
Laurent @ 29:
This sounds nerve-wracking, to say the least. I hope you and your father have a lot of support, and I hope you both get the answers you need.
CaitieCat:
How in the hell is it, in any way, supernatural to hope for someone’s medical recovery? I’m not hoping some deity will take pity, and I doubt anyone else had that in mind, either.
Thanks for the kind words Caine. I think I might have brought this up in the lounge or was going to back when it existed. Basically he ignored the symptoms of numbness and tingling in his hand, which spread to his arm, and when full paralysis struck it was while riding his motorcycle. Not a good thing to be partially paralyzed on. My mother who in recent years hadn’t ridden much with him decided to go that day. Without her presence it would have been a compound incident and I’m happy it worked out that way.
Sorry, partial paralysis just of his left side.
He is recovered essentially and doing well. He’s on blood thinners and aspirin which help, and he had a stint put in as well. No lasting damage or affects beyond what happened at the time.
One thing that stinks is that he had developed polyps in his sinuses. So surgery was out of the question as his neurolygist didn’t want to take him off the thinners. So now he can’t smell anything. And if that’s the worst we’re struck with, I’m glad.
CaitieCat – I think it’s a linguistic remnant, not a superstitious one. It’s a declaration that although this person is in a vulnerable state, we do not plan to cause them harm nor will we aid and abet anyone else who does, and that we do not engage in spiteful thinking. Good trait to have reinforced in a eusocial species. :)
Throwaway:
Oh fuck. Now that’s extra scary, with terrifying on top. I’m glad your mum was with him.
I apologize. I misjudged.
I watched that TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor who had a stroke and described what it felt like to her, while it was happening.
My takeaway: strokes bad. Strokes really bad. The idea of being conscious while your consciousness is getting hammered to pieces is fascinating but, no thanks. Really. I had enough neuro as an undergrad (though now it’s hopelessly outdated) that I could kind of guess what systems were being affected in her brain by what she was experiencing. Words fail. Well that’s your Broca’s area… A fellow I know who’s in the neuroscience at CMU experimented with one of those TMI machines and says that one time he managed to stun his Wernicke’s region and experienced the sensation, for 10 minutes, of losing his language processing. Waaaaaaaa!!! Sounds like one of the most dangerous toys ever: whups there’s your hippocampus offline for a minute.
https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight?language=en
Expressing sympathy isn’t a holdover of superstition; it’s being supportive.
The words we use are indeed holdovers — even as a second-generation atheist I find myself about to type out that I’m praying for peoples’ full recovery.
My grandmother slid into dementia due to a series of small strokes. Terrible way to go.
My dad has has several major strokes, and I once found him flopping on the kitchen floor like a fish. It’s frightening to behold, and even more frightening to experience. Fortunately, he’s mostly recovered from them, and isn’t doing much worse than anyone pushing 80 after a lifetime of chain smoking. While I have little liking for Dawkins as a person, I wouldn’t wish a stroke on anyone.
Dawkins is fortunate to have received care in a single payer health system. While advances in stroke care are racing forwards, it is also a time of despair in the American system. An acute ischemic stroke mandates urgent ER care within a narrow therapeutic window. This includes not only a head CT prior to giving thrombolytics but also a more expensive CT angiography with CT brain perfusion post-thrombolysis. If the stroke has not resolved, the next step is interventional radiological procedures such as thrombectomy. This is followed by rehab and long term stroke prevention. It is foolish to think that private health insurance (for those that have it) will pay for all this. I most certainly feel “The Bern” on this matter.
A report from Karen Owens on Richard’s status:
Frightening. My husband is constantly on me to keep my cell charged and on. I’m getting better at it, but I need to be 100% on that score. I’m in a bad situation if a stroke hits me, alone most of the time, and an hour away from any medical facility.
Thanks for the information PZ.
The results sound all too familiar. Recovery from hemorrhagic strokes takes longer, as the blood, which is a neurotoxin, has to be absorbed. Early therapy (occupational for the arm and speech for the facial muscles) helps.
My best wishes for Richard Dawkins for a speedy and full recovery.
Agreed. Dawkins has shown himself to be a total ass when speaking about…well, pretty much everything except evolutionary biology, but that is not cause to actually wish him harm, and strokes can be especially frightening and debilitating in their effects.
I hope he has a speedy recovery.
My mother-in-law had a series of TIA’s several years ago but hasn’t had any problems lately. I’ll echo ragdish’s comments on universal healthcare. I’m in Canada and there was zero stress about treatment. Here (and I assume it’s the same in the UK), you just show up with your health card and the doctors decide what treatment is required. We don’t have the extra shit-layer of them having to justify it to an insurer.
That’s what is so ironic about the “death panel” discussions; the US is one of the few developed nations that has an analogous function.
Wishing RD a speedy and full recovery!
Athersys in Cleveland,Ohio,USA has discovered a cure(Multi-Stem) for Ischemic Stroke
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-athersys-study-idUSKBN0N810020150417
Get well Mr. Dawkins
To be totally pedantic about it, a minor ischemic stroke is one with an NIHSS less than or equal to 3 whose symptoms do NOT resolve. This sounds like a hemorrhagic stroke with residual deficits, and so wouldn’t qualify as a minor ischemic stroke or TIA. Based on Karen Owens’ description I would describe Dr. Dawkins’ symptoms as mild to moderate, but the good news is that the injury sounds really small and while bleeds often have a worse initial injury, they often recover better than ischemic strokes because a substantial part of the symptoms come from edema rather than necrosis. Hemorrhage of the deep gray or white matter is usually hypertensive.
To finish the pedantry, TIA carries the same risk of recurrent stroke as a stroke with residual deficits, anyway (actually a little higher than certain types of stroke). Here’s wishing normotension and laminar flow on Dr. Dawkins, Dr. Myers, and all our cantankerous vasculopaths.
Best wishes to Richard Dawkins for a full and speedy recovery, and best wishes also to his family and friends.
Welp. While we’re studiously trying not to politicize anything about this and keep the person of Dawkins and his recovery completely separate from anything else related to him, he went and all but entirely blamed his stroke on being disinvited to the NECSS conference. Richard Dawkins gives an update on his condition through the RDFRS soundcloud account. (goes to a souncloud upload)
Partial transcript:
I had indeed had a stroke. It was a hemorrhagic stroke, not an ischemic stroke, in the right basal ganglion which affects left side function but not higher cerebral function, thank goodness. (around 1:30)
4:59 – The doctors asked me whether I had been suffering from stress, and I had to say yes I had. They keep advising me not to get involved in controversy, and I’m afraid I had to tell them that not getting involved in controversy is one of those things I’m not particularly talented at.
I told them that I had been having a certain amount of controversy and was very distressed when on the 28th of January I was disinvited from a conference in America to which I had previously been asked. This upset me very much. I’m used to getting hate from religious nuts and creationists but when I get hate from what I think of as my own people, the left liberal feminists and so on that does actually hurt me.
And I might have been expected to get the stroke after that, if ever, but paradoxically the stroke came after I got a bit of good news. On the morning of February 5 I had a very gracious letter from the conference organizers, the committee, graciously apologizing for disinviting me and reinviting me and I was overjoyed at that, and you might think that was the last time I would have got a stroke but actually it was the evening of that same day that I got the stroke.
Dawkins, quoted by Carlie @ 64:
Wow. Fuckin’ wow. His people. I’m not one of your people, Mr. Dawkins, so on that I am.
And people wonder why he never learns anything. Great job, organizers and committee.
A re-invitation isn’t listed on their conference site, and the dis-invitation still is. I got the link originally from Oolon, who said it may have been a letter from someone there saying he was welcome, but not a re-invitation to speak from the official committee.
A hemorrhagic stroke is often more serious than an ischemic one, because of its potential to extend, or to be catastrophic in the first place. It is also harder to recover from in my experience.
It is most commonly caused by blowing a gasket intracerebrally through critically high BP, and if you have ever seen Richard with his flushed face you can easily imagine his BP being poorly controlled for a long time.
The reason I’m writing this here is to make people aware that hypertension is a silent killer, you can have high BP for 20 years without any hard symptoms.
So go to your GP and have it checked.
He considers the disinviting to be hate? Then how would he describe his own behavior? Somehow, in opposite-world, he’s not hateful towards liberal feminists? Has Dawkins considered for one moment the effects of the unrelenting harassment on the countless left liberal feminists who used to admire and support him? The unrelenting harassment that he has had no small part in inspiring and encouraging. The guy has made my blood pressure rise dangerously high more than once, and I haven’t even been specifically targeted by him. I’m glad he’s recovering and have no hope that he will ever work to minimize the harm he has done to his “own people.”
kellym
In short: no. Since he doesn’t approve of “harassment”* he doesn’t think it’s possible that he contributes to it.
Today another thing happened in the UK: The NUS LGBTQ officer efused an invitation to an even with Peter Tatchell and it got turned into “horrible extremists no-platform beloved gay activist”.
Obviously the feelings of white guys who consider themselves “allies” are the most important thing in this world.
*It’s pretty clear is that his definition of harassment is pretty different from the actual thing
@Giliell, 69
Huh… I just read an article about that, and I’m a little confused by it. Has Tatchell’s invitation actually been withdrawn because of Cowell’s statement, or does “no platformed” just mean “somebody said they didn’t want to be associated with me” now?
I CANNOT ROLL MY EYES ENOUGH AT THIS
Statement from the executive committee of NECSS
Carlie
Ohferfucksake…
Carlie:
Can I say Told you so? (#65)
Is it worth hoping that the question of whether uncritically reposting utterly fact-free videos connecting pro-equality groups with pro-terrorism groups, and neo-nazi propaganda is a sign that you might want to take a moment and rethink a few things is going to come up in that new panel? Or was the NECSS only focussed on the offence angle, rather than the glaring irrationality too? Because fucking seriously….
Yes, there is room for a range of REASONABLE opinions on this issues. I’ve seen no reason in recent history to see why that would mean Dawkins deserves to be reinvited.
(I wonder if Rebecca Watson’s reasonable opinion on those issues will be given room on that panel?)
Pardon me for being a cynic, but this reeks of “Oh shit, disinviting a really famous person might hurt our wallets, that was a silly idea.”
Caine – yes. *pout*
If being disinvited is hate, was it hate when he made sure Rebecca Watson could not speak at events he attended?
Hate is claiming feminists don’t mind being raped by minorities he hates.
Hate is claiming drunk women deserve to be raped.
Hate is promoting anti-feminism as “real” feminism and calling protesters “vile” after years of harassment and threats made toward them.
Hate is claiming date rape drugs make women incapable of testifying against their rapists and that child molestation is minor abuse compared to religious upbringing.
But NESS regets denying him a stage to say these things from.
Of course they do. Of course. *eyeroll*
Last October: “A university is not a “safe space”. If you need a safe space, leave, go home, hug your teddy & suck your thumb until ready for university.”
This week: “I was disinvited from conference to which I had previously been asked, this upset me very much. I’m used to getting hate from religionists, from creationists, but when I get hate from my own people, from left, liberal feminists and so on, that actually hurt me.”
More special pleading from a giant asshole.
How many times can one play the Pathetic Old Man Card?