Power and sickness: 5 US presidents who hid health problems from society You know?

Portal 15 minutes invites access to 5 cases in US history in which the health status of US presidents was concealed.

William Henry Harrison, 1841

In 1841, a few weeks after its inauguration, WHHarrison contracted a disease similar to pneumonia.

Doctors sensed that he had a cold during his inauguration, during which he rode a horse and then gave a long speech in the rain and cold, without a coat or hat.

The White House initially hid the president from getting sick. At that time, it was even easier to cover up the president’s illness: a crowd of reporters did not monitor the actions of all the presidents.

But it soon became clear that something was wrong because the president did not appear in public. Crowds began to stand guard in the palace waiting for news of what was happening to the president. WHHarrison’s condition rapidly deteriorated and he died 9 days later. WHHarrison became the shortest ruling president of the United States, passing away on the 32nd day of his term.

Now some historians believe WHHarrison may have died not from pneumonia but from typhoid fever.

Groveris Clevelandas, 1893 m.

1893 In June, the president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, learned that he had a malignant tumor in his mouth that needed urgent surgery.

But the president of the United States did not want the public to know that he had cancer. He had recently presented an economic reform plan and feared that it would fail if the public found out about his health.

So a very unexpected plan was devised to cover up the operation. Since any visit to the president’s hospital would inevitably have been noticed by strangers, it was decided to operate him … on a yacht.

A friend of the president lent him his yacht, and the public was informed that the president was going on a short vacation during which the fishermen.

In reality, however, several doctors on the yacht, who swore to secrecy, operated on him. During the operation, not only the tumor was removed, but also the entire left upper jaw, which was replaced with a prosthesis.

The operation was successful, but rehabilitation was still pending. Very few people knew the truth of what had happened. Doctors, the secretary to the president, and members of the United States government lied to everyone else.

A press conference told reporters directly that the rumors of a difficult operation for the president were false.

It was alleged that the president was in no hurry to return to Washington because he suffered from rheumatism and that the only operation that was performed was the extraction of a tooth.

In August 1893, Cleveland returned to the capital. During this time, he adapted to the artificial jaw and learned to speak in such a way that hardly anyone noticed the difference. The operation was successfully covered up.

It wasn’t until 24 years later, when Cleveland had long since died, that one of the doctors who performed the operation told me what had really happened.

Woodrow Wilsonas, 1919 m.

The lies of those who lived in Cleveland about their health did not have a significant impact on American politics. But in 1919, when W. Wilson’s state of health was similarly hidden, the situation was already different.

In October of that year, W. Wilson suffered a stroke, after which his health did not fully recover. He was partially paralyzed and witnesses said he was “powerless” and “a shadow of the former self.”

Wilson’s doctor later officially declared that the president was “very ill” and “needed to get some rest” but did not provide further details.

Wilson’s wife, Edith, and her doctor restricted access to the president lying in bed. They did so without consulting either the vice president or the government or Congress.

The two decided what kind of people could access the president and communicate with him, what documents he would have access to in person.

Initially, Wilson’s condition was well known only to members of his family, those closest to his team, and various doctors and nurses. Behind this circle, hardly anyone knew the true status of the president. The health of W. Wilson was rumored.

Of course, it was not possible to keep the situation quiet for a long time. A few months later, in 1920. In March 1921, the news of the president’s illness spread widely, but the situation did not change substantially until 1921, when the term of W. Wilson ended. W. Wilson ended his term separated from society, almost without making decisions, the country actually lived without a president.

Many around Wilson questioned whether he should remain president and suggested that Vice President Thomas Marshall formally declare his claims to power (the U.S. Constitution states that if the president cannot take office, the vice president takes office), but it didn’t.

Until the end of his term, Wilson controlled who could approach and communicate with the president, and he assumed some of the routine functions of the presidency. Although she has not made any significant political decisions during this period, she is sometimes referred to as the “first female president of the United States.”

Franklinas D. Rooseveltas, 1944 m.

FDRoosevelt for three periods, 1932-1944, was able to hide that he had paralyzed legs, that he could not walk without crutches, and that he used a wheelchair.

Such health problems were caused by the polio that FDRoosevelt contracted at the age of almost 40.

Throughout this period, the President was helped to hide his health by the Secret Service guarding him, who even took cameras away from journalists who immortalized the President in a wheelchair.

But in 1944, when FDRoosevelt’s health rapidly deteriorated, it became increasingly difficult to hide the truth. Greta’s polio in 1944. FDRoosevelto, who has been a heavy smoker throughout his life, has also contributed to high blood pressure, heart problems, lung problems, atherosclerosis, and more.

However, as 1944 approached. For the US presidential election in October, both the president himself and his doctors concealed FDRoosevelt’s health problems. “The stories that FDRoosevelt is seriously ill are not surprising because elections are being held, but these stories are not true.” the presidential physician said in October.

But those around him saw the real situation. “It will soon collapse,” said Harry Truman, who in 1944 was nominated as vice president of FDRoosevelt during the presidential election, his adviser said after a meeting with the president.

Truman wasn’t too wrong: just a few months after the election, FDRoosevelt died of a stroke. Truman himself became president.

Dwightas Eisenhoweris, 1955 m.

1955 September 24 At night, the president of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, suffered a heart attack. When the media began to wonder the next day why Eisenhower did not show up at his office, his spokesman said that the president had “indigestion” and was resting, but that he had nothing serious. This message was repeated a few hours later.

Interestingly, in this case, it was not a deliberate lie, but a doctor’s mistake.

At night, Eisenhower woke up with pain in his chest, but on the eve he actually complained of digestive problems. So the doctor misjudged his symptoms and just injected pain killers.

Just the following afternoon, without chest pain, a cardiologist was called and an electrocardiograph was performed, which determined that the president had suffered a heart attack. The president was rushed to the hospital.

The people around him then decided that to avoid panic, the public needed to receive as accurate information as possible about his condition. It was reported that the president suffered a heart attack, but is in a hospital where he is being treated by the best doctors.

Soon his health began to improve. D. Eisenhower spent six weeks in the hospital. All this time, according to the advisers’ decision, the public was given as accurate information as possible about his condition, and the president was inundated with letters from Americans urging him to recover.

However, many did not forget that the heart attack on the first morning was only called “digestive problems”.

Only recently have historians, after a thorough examination of the surviving documents from that day, found that the really guilty doctor in this situation was the doctor who later tried to hide his mistake.