Top 5 Presidents with Major Health Problems

4.  Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson, who was President from 1913 to 1921,  suffered a catastrophic disabling stroke while in office in 1919, and nobody except for his wife knew about it. His condition was kept a secret from his Cabinet, from the Vice President and most importantly from the public. Wilson is an example of a president whose ill-health should have disqualified him from serving.  That his wife, Edith, took over the reins of government in his stead was unconstitutional. In the event the president is disabled, nowhere is it stated that his spouse gets to take over.

It is this kind of an outcome that the American people need to watch out for.

Not every illness, no matter how painful and chronic, is disabling. No president should be disqualified simply because he is suffering from a disease. But neurological conditions that can lead to brain death or to reduced capacity are the sorts of information that the public needs to know about prior to an election, and we certainly have every right to know about it when a president suffers a catastrophic health event that compromises their ability to serve.

After his stroke, when President Wilson was being driven around Washington, he asked whether as president he had the authority to give people speeding tickets. The Attorney General told him “no.” But undeterred, Wilson kept trying to act as a traffic cop. It bothered him that people were driving faster than twenty-two miles per hour, and he wanted them apprehended. He sent Secret Service agents to catch the speeders. They humored him, but always came back saying the speeders were going so fast they could not catch them. This was the extent to which his understanding of the office of the presidency had devolved.

Before being elected president, Wilson had suffered from debilitating headaches, and perhaps if a physician had properly diagnosed the problem, then the danger of a stroke might have been averted. While there may not have been any dishonesty involved prior to the stroke, it is undeniably true that afterwards his physician conspired to keep the extent of Wilson’s disability secret, enabling Edith Wilson to take over.

Transparency about health conditions that might reduce a future president’s brain function is important. Failure to share such information with the public prior to the election is a pretty good indication that once a president is disabled, that information will also be hidden, and then someone other than the person we elected will be making important decisions that affect the nation. To say that this could never happen is to ignore that it already has once, during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.