In 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suffered from memory loss and mental illness so severe that a friend feared he might have a brain tumor. Mr. Kennedy said he had consulted with several of the nation’s leading neurologists, many of whom had treated or spoken to his uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, before his death the previous year from brain cancer.
Several doctors noticed a dark spot on scans of the younger Mr. Kennedy’s brain and concluded that he had a tumor, he said in a 2012 deposition reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Kennedy was immediately scheduled for a procedure at Duke University Medical Center by the same surgeon who had operated on his uncle, he said.
As he made preparations for the trip, he said, he received a call from a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital who had a different opinion: Mr. Kennedy, he believed, had a dead parasite in the head.
The doctor believed the abnormality seen on his scans “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate part of it and then died,” Mr. Kennedy said in his deposition.
Now an independent presidential candidate, Mr. Kennedy, 70, has described his athleticism and relative youth as an advantage over the two oldest people to ever run for the White House: President Biden, 81, and former President Donald J. Trump, 77. Mr. Kennedy earned a spot on the ballot in Utah, Michigan, Hawaii and, according to his campaign, California and Delaware. His intensive push to gain access to more states could put him in a position to tip the election scales.
He went to great lengths to appear healthy, skiing with a professional snowboarder and with an Olympic gold medalist who called him a “ripper” as they ran down the mountain. A film crew was by his side as he lifted weights, shirtless, at an outdoor gym in Venice Beach.
Yet over the years he faced serious health problems, some of which had not been previously revealed, including the apparent parasite.
For decades, Mr. Kennedy suffered from atrial fibrillation, a common heart rhythm abnormality that increases the risk of stroke or heart failure. He has been hospitalized at least four times for episodes, although in an interview with The Times this winter he said he hadn’t had an incident in more than a decade and thought his condition had gone away .
Around the same time he learned about the parasite, he said, he was also diagnosed with mercury poisoning, likely due to ingesting too much fish containing the dangerous heavy metal, which can cause serious neurological problems.
“I clearly have cognitive issues,” he said in his 2012 deposition. “I have short-term memory loss and long-term memory loss that affects me.”
In the Times interview, he said he had recovered from the memory loss and fog and had no after-effects from the parasite, which he said did not require treatment. . Asked last week, if applicable…
