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Health and Medical History of President Woodrow WilsonPresident #28: 1915-1921
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Lived 1856-1924
2020
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| This style... | ... means the event occurred while President. |
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 late reader |
Wilson did not learn the alphabet until he was 9 years old, and could not read until he was
12. This raises the possibility he had a learning disability, perhaps similar to dyslexia
1.
Wilson eventually earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins and became President of Princeton.
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 eye twitches |
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eyeglasses habit |
Wilson had an annoying habit of busily polishing his eyeglasses while people were talking to
him
3a.
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  atherosclerosis |
His physician missed the signs of Wilson's atherosclerosis before becoming president.
2b
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 terrible teeth |
A photograph of Wilson on the day of his 1913 inauguration shows astonishingly bad teeth [see
photo MORE].
Comment:
This is relevant to Wilson's later stroke(s) because poor dentition has been suspected to increase
the risk of atherosclerotic disease.
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stroke #1 |
Dr. E. A. Weinstein has carefully analyzed Wilson's medical history in a book
4.
He finds evidence of multiple strokes.
Wilson's first stroke was in May 1896. It caused
marked weakness of the right upper limb plus sensory disturbances in the fingers. The finger
problems were mis-diagnosed as neuritis. Wilson was unable to write normally for almost a year
afterwards.
Comment:
There may be some dispute about this event, in a later article in the New England Journal of
Medicine.
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stroke #2 |
In June 1904 Wilson developed weakness in the right upper limb that lasted for several months
4.
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stroke #3 |
On May 28, 1906, Wilson suddenly lost vision in his left eye. This persisted. Weakness of the
right upper limb was present
4.
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cerebro-vascular events #4,5,6 |
Wilson had multiple other neurological events that were presumably vascular in origin
4:
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cerebro-vascular events #7,8 |
Wilson's problems with blood circulation in his brain and eyes continued after he became President
4:
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 cold |
On what must have been a slow news day, the President's cold was front-page news in the New
York Times on Dec. 12, 1913
5
MORE
-- underneath a story about the 70-pound weight loss achieved by former President
William Taft.
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 hypertensive headaches? |
From 1915 to 1919 Wilson had episodic severe headaches, lasting for days. It is possible these
were due to [uncontrolled] hypertension
4.
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pre-stroke |
In September 1919 Wilson was having severe headaches, double vision, and signs of a weakened
heart. On Sept. 25 he developed a transitory weakness on the left side of his body
4.
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stroke |
Wilson suffered a catastrophic, disabling stroke while President (Oct. 3, 1919), as recounted
in multiple sources
6a
2c
7a
8a,
including an entire book on the subject
9.
(Any biography covering Wilson's presidential years should devote extensive coverage to this
event.)
This was the most serious illness suffered by any sitting President.
Wilson had bad headaches before becoming president, but presidential physician Cary Grayson
ascribed the stroke to a thrombosis, stating it was not hemorrhagic
6b.
Wilson's condition was hidden from his Cabinet, from the Vice President and, of course,
from the public. This could only be done by keeping Wilson physically isolated. Some members
of the Cabinet were uneasy. On Oct. 5, 1919, ex-President
Taft
wrote to A. L. Lowell
10a:
[Secretary of the Treasury] McAdoo says the President [Wilson] is in a state of collapse -- that his mind is clear but that he is so weak that his doctors would not permit him to discuss or think about any of these matters. ... He says that he would like to help, but he is in a delicate situation, being the son-in-law of the President.Taft was no fan of Woodrow Wilson, but it is interesting that even an ex-President in the opposing political party did not (could not?) act on behalf of the people. |
 sanity? |
After his stroke, Wilson was driven around in his car and took the opportunity to apprehend
speeders!
2d
This may be an exaggeration, however. Dr. Mark Benbow of the Woodrow Wilson House reports
that "He didn't actually try to catch speeders himself, but he did send his secret service
agents after them in their separate car. They would usually come back and claim that the speeder
was going too fast so they could not catch them. Wilson also asked his Attorney General if
he had the power to give speeding tickets. The Attorney General said no. This probably started
before Wilson had his stroke. The speed limit in Washington then was 22 mph"
11
[? source = "Starling of the White House"].
Wilson used to tease his family and friends at the dinner table asking "Well, who's been
pinched today?"
4a.
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complicity |
His physician conspired to keep the extent of Wilson's disability secret, along with Mrs. Wilson.
Wilson's chief of staff, Tumulty, was even cut out. (Tumulty's son later became chief of internal
medicine at Johns Hopkins.) To do: Talk about the tumble that may have changed history -- led
to selection of both Wilson's and FDR's incompetent physicians.
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appearance |
On his last day in office, he was "emaciated and mask-like"
12a.
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There is a story told of Wilson that he asked a caller if he knew the hardest job a President faced every day. "No," was the response, "because I have never been President." "I'll tell you then," replied Wilson, "it is in keeping your temper."
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a p.65 b p.5 c pp.56-77 d p.75 e p.64
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a p.218
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a p.260 per Dr. Benbow
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a pp.96-100 b p.100 c p.110
Comment: Grayson was Wilson's physician during his entire tenure as President. No presidential physician before or since Grayson has had as close a relationship with the Chief Executive. It is remarkable that, in his book, Grayson devotes only one paragraph to Wilson's stroke (page 100).
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a pp.3-76
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a pp.85-90
Comment: At one time Post worked for the CIA, profiling foreign leaders.
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a p.927
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a p.323
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a p.316
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a p.126 b pp.22, 81
Comment: Stoddard was editor and owner of the New York Evening Mail from 1900 to 1925.
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a p.433
Comment: Maps -- in great detail -- the ancestors and descendants of American presidents through Ronald Reagan. They would have had an exhausting time with President Obama's family tree! MORE
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2 reviews