He suddenly couldn’t speak in space. NASA astronaut says his medical scare remains a mystery

https://apnews.com/article/nasa-sick-astronaut-medical-evacuation-cc34793ffb73174f18443f2dd9c6ff2f

34 Comments

  1. That is WAY scarier than I expected, even if it maybe wasn’t as dangerous. I thought it would be appendicitis or something common.

  2. Hate to say it, but this sounds like a panic attack

    Edit: I have to rewrite this whole comment to prevent Redditors with a k1 reading level from getting pissed off at me.

    “I, an uncertified unprofessional, believe this could be a panic attack after glancing at the post title”

    Yall can stop losing your fucking minds now lol

  3. As someone who experiences sudden aphasia, I can’t imagine what he felt like. And he’s WAY healthier than I am.

  4. im_thatoneguy on

    I was really into whitewater kayaking for a while and did roll classes on how to flip back right side up.

    One time after class I was stuck talking like Donald Duck and it was really hard to talk for a day afterword. I wonder if this wasn’t something similar. Some airway getting closed off and stuck together. Mine was just for being upside down for a couple minutes. I’m sure we haven’t discovered all the weird ways the body doesn’t work right in free fall for long periods of time.

  5. Astronauts are trained extremely well, but they are still humans, if space travel becomes more commercial one day ordinary untrained people may be able to go outwards into space still with all their human nature, good and bad

  6. >Fincke stopped apologizing to everybody after NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman ordered him to stop.

    That’s a respectable move from Isaacman. 

  7. KristnSchaalisahorse on

    It’s nice to confirm that he otherwise felt fine. There were so many comments by people trying to guess who “looked the worst” after splashdown. And after the identity was revealed, people claimed they “knew it” based on their supposed analysis of his visual appearance. As expected, that wild speculation was absolute nonsense.

  8. My theory is that it seems like a seizure to me. Not a full on tonic-clonic seizure, but more akin to a focal or an absence seizure.

  9. “Fast Lightning Bolt” Could it be a high energy stray cosmic ray that maybe his his brain or nerves?

  10. This could have been a symptom of a few different underlying causes. I’ve seen patients with this type of symptom and in those patients it was mostly due to a Transient Ischemic Attack. There are a few other causes in the differential that I’m sure NASA is diligently investigating.

  11. Aquamans_Dad on

    This is not that complicated.

    Pretty classic for a transient ischemic attack, basically a temporary stroke, to cause aphasia. 

    Any third year medical student should be able to figure this out. 

  12. Why are we sending 60 year olds to space? Remember when we used to tell people that old to take a seat? Something happened where now we just love having old people do the job. We’re sending people in their mid to late 70s to be the president for god’s sake.

    Why is this guy going to space for a 4th time? I’m guessing he has connections since he’s been around for so long. Let new blood get up there to set up the future.

  13. Sending people past their prime age, into space, doesn’t seem like a great idea.

  14. Sounds kinda like the ocular migraines I suffer with.

    Basically stroke symptoms (except one side of my body doesn’t droop, both sides stop functioning lol).

    I become unable to type, speak coherently or balance properly. Once it’s over though, zero medical signs I even had anything wrong.

  15. Do me a favor NASA. If anyone ever gets sick with some unknown illness in space, please don’t bring them back to earth.

    Sincerely, the population of earth

  16. I won’t speculate on what caused it because I’m hopelessly unqualified, but damn that sounds scary. Let’s hope they are able to figure it out and it’ll be of benefit to future astronauts.

  17. plasmacartwheel on

    If he suddenly couldn’t speak and it wasn’t psychological, it was almost certainly a transient ischemic attack. 

  18. High energy particles can flip bits in computers, who says one didn’t reboot his brain

  19. TheCheddarHole on

    Ohhhh thaaaats whats they meant when they said they “couldnt say” what was wrong. Smart