A police investigation into the circumstances surrounding former President Kieran MacKenzie‘s diagnosis of dementia during the civil war in 2018. President MacKenzie was diagnosed with dementia approximately one week after assuming office in June 2018 following the (illegal) impeachment of his predecessor, Leanna Walker. He then entered a period of rapid cognitive decline; resulting in his being removed from office shortly after the signing of the Haven Accords.
This was not to be the end of the matter, however. After his removal from office, MacKenzie’s condition stabilised, without further decline – and months later, began to reverse. Around fourteen months after the initial diagnosis, doctors stated that they believed he may have been misdiagnosed. Buttercity Central Hospital launched its own investigation into the affair, concluding that there had been no wrongdoing in the initial assessment, as the President’s condition had very clearly presented as dementia. The hospital classified the misdiagnosis as an “honest mistake”.
“There are a number of conditions that can mimic the symptoms of dementia,” Dr Ileana Nieves, a lecturer in Neuroscience at the University of Melissa City, told the Lauchenoirian Guardian. “It is possible, though unlikely, that the former President had a separate medical condition which later cleared up without medical interference. However, given the highly suspicious timing of his decline, in the middle of the civil war, it is far more probable that his dementia symptoms were induced by drugs, likely without his knowledge.”
The Federal Policing and Investigation Service have thus begun an investigation into the affair, with former Prime Minister Charissa Clarke likely at the top of the list of suspects. Clarke, who was revealed to be an “Aurora” sent as a Kerlian agent, is also suspected of poisoning her predecessor Suleman Chaher prior to his undergoing surgery for gunshot wound complications. MacKenzie’s “dementia” allowed Chaher and Clarke to pass decrees during the state of emergency without any scrutiny, making the timing of his symptoms highly suspicious. Clarke remains in prison in Sanctaria.
MacKenzie, now 84, is no longer showing any signs of dementia and is said to be of “considerably above average” health for someone of his age group by doctors. MacKenzie himself told the Lauchenoirian Guardian that he “deeply regrets the events that were allowed to occur” under his nominal presidency, and that he is “ashamed” of his conduct at the time, even though he was “not fully in control of [his] thoughts or actions” due to the circumstances. Shortly after his recovery in 2019, he left the Communist Party and openly denounced the Chaher/Clarke regime; a position which he has maintained since.
