Health and Medical History of President

Theodore Roosevelt

that the strain of the campaign was proving too much for Roosevelt. His voice was bothering him seriously. Reports reached the Bull Moose headquarters that he was losing his grip, that he was repeating himself disastrously. He was forced to cancel two addresses scheduled for the Middle West because of his throat. The disability was bad enough to raise the possibility that he could speak no more. 5a

Roosevelt was extremely lucky. He had the manuscript of a long, 50-page speech in his coat pocket, folded in two, and the bullet was no doubt slowed as it passed through it. He also had a steel spectacle case in his pocket, and the bullet traversed this, too, before entering Roosevelt's chest near the right nipple. Thus, one could say that Roosevelt's long-windedness and myopia saved his life! MORE

Although the bullet traveled superiorly and medially for about 3 inches after breaking the skin, it lodged in the chest wall, without entering the pleural space. Roosevelt was examined in a Milwaukee hospital MORE, (where he reluctantly allowed the surgeons to administer an injection of tetanus anti-toxin 1c), and then was observed for 8 days in a Chicago hospital. He was discharged on October 23, 1912 -- only a few days before the election. The bullet had effectively stopped Roosevelt's campaign. He finished second to Woodrow Wilson, but ahead of the incumbent President, William Howard Taft. The bullet was never removed, and caused no difficulty after the wound healed. 7

The details of the assassination attempt and its aftermath are described in 6b.

Loud snoring raises the possibility of sleep apnea. Hypersomnolence would be an additional sign of sleep apnea. Was Roosevelt hypersomnolent? During his Presidency, at least, he was not. The White House usher observed 9a:

President Roosevelt slept well at night, but never in the day. He liked to read in the evening after all was quiet. The usual retiring hour was about ten-thirty, but it was always with difficulty that the President was persuaded to turn in at that time. He would promise to come along in a minute, but would immediately become absorbed in a book or magazine and it was generally after much effort and much persuasion that he would finally turn in for the night. Mrs. Roosevelt would call and call. The sound of her voice calling "The-o-dore!" is well remembered by all the older employees. She often appealed to me to go to the President and "see if you cannot persuade him to come to bed." No matter how late he sat up, he always arose at the same time in the morning and always appeared refreshed and hearty.

The poet Edgar Lee Masters vividly described Roosevelt's health in later years MORE.

Had Roosevelt not died at the young age of 60, it is quite likely that he would have been elected President in 1920. At the very least, "He would not need to lift a finger this time [as opposed to 1912], and the [Republican presidential] nomination would still be his" 13a.

Interestingly, Harding might have been Roosevelt's Vice President [Ibid.]. If Roosevelt had lived, say, three years longer, and Harding still had died in 1923, then the Secretary of State would have succeeded to the Presidency under the law then in effect.