The Top Five Presidents with Health Problems
With the recent speculation about Hillary Clinton’s deteriorating health, some have suggested that her medical problems should be an immediate disqualification for holding office. But did you know that many of our presidents in the past struggled with poor health while in office? Here are the top five.
5. Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson, affectionately known as Old Hickory, because he was astoundingly tough, despite very poor health, served two terms as President, from March 4, 1829 to March 4, 1837. One of the causes of his ill health while in office was a bullet lodged in his arm, which in addition to causing him a lot of pain, was also contributing to his deteriorating health from lead poisoning.
Jackson had been in a couple of duels in his younger years, and since he was neither a quick shot nor a particularly good one, his overall policy was to take the first hit and then to use his immense stamina to weather the storm and emerge victorious. This was also his policy as a general. He was neither brilliant as a strategist nor particularly effective as a fighter, but his immense endurance helped him overcome all the odds.
In an 1806 duel, for instance, against Charles Dickinson, an expert marksman, Jackson was wounded and bleeding to the such an extent that his left boot filled with blood, but he then was able to shoot and kill his opponent. Dickinson’s bullet had shattered two of Jackson’s ribs and lodged close to his heart. The wound never healed properly, and Jackson lived in pain for the rest of his life. But this was not the bullet that he carried with him to the White House. In 1813, in a gunfight with Jesse Benton in Nashville, Jackson again was shot. A slug shattered his left shoulder, and the ball came out into his left humerus.
Jackson bled so much that two mattresses were soaked with his blood. Amputation was recommended, but Jackson insisted he would keep his arm. He was bedridden for three weeks, but a month later the General was already commanding troops in the field. During the Battle of New Orleans, everyone could see that Andrew Jackson was in very poor health, but he kept going by sheer willpower. He also suffered from malaria and dysentery, contracted in the swamps of Florida in the 1820s. By the time Jackson was elected president, he was a very sick man. But his endurance and determination kept him going, despite a great deal of chronic pain and suffering.
By 1831, the bullet from the gunfight with Jesse Benton was starting to migrate from its original lodging place. President Jackson had to finally admit that he needed help, so he summoned Dr. Thomas Harris, the chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine, to the White House. Jackson gritted his teeth, bared his arm and said “Go ahead.” Operating without anesthesia, Dr. Harris removed the bullet from the president’s outstretched arm. Jackson’s overall health improved immensely after that operation, which means he was probably suffering from lead poisoning prior to its removal.
Jackson went on the live for eight long years after his two terms as President. He was never in good health during his public life, but the fact that he lived through it all is proof that he had an unusually tough constitution, and that his underlying health was better than average. Most people can’t survive being shot in two duels and walk around in perfect control of themselves and the presidency, while a bullet is lodged in their body. Andrew Jackson is proof that obstinacy, thick skin and great stamina can beat any health problem. Jackson’s ailments did not disqualify him from serving.
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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.
3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Everyone today who has heard of Franklin D. Roosevelt knows that our 32nd president suffered from paralysis due to a bout with polio. At the time, however, this was kept hidden from the public, as if being unable to walk were a disqualification for holding the office of president.
Should being a paraplegic be a disqualification for the presidency? Most people today would agree that it should not. But on the other hand, the great lengths to which the White House press corps went to hide Roosevelt’s condition from the public shows an eerie complicity with the president. It’s quite possible that the American voters at the time would have continued to elect the four term winner over and over again, if they had known the truth. But the fact that the press went to such lengths to conspire with Roosevelt to keep the truth hidden is a cause for dismay. Could the mainstream media be doing the same today to enable Hillary Clinton? When Hillary has trouble walking, it is not due to a paralysis from polio. If she has a disease that affects the brain, such as Parkinson’s, then public does have the right to know.
Roosevelt died while in office, during the beginning of his fourth term on April 12, 1945. He had been suffering from a great many medical conditions during the years of his presidency, though none of them appeared to affect his ability to carry out the duties of his office. The secrecy concerning his medical history persists to this day. Roosevelt’s medical record, which had been kept at Bethesda Naval Hospital, has been missing since the day he died. Someone must have had something to hide.
2. John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy was assassinated while in office. The exact facts surrounding his death have been hashed and re-hashed, and there are many theories both about the number of killers, the number of bullets, the shape of the exit wound and everything else that surrounds his death. But did you know that President Kennedy suffered from health issues long before he was shot?
JFK was hospitalized numerous times during his life. In addition to the usual childhood diseases and to sports-related injuries, he suffered from spastic colitis as early as age seventeen. He was on steroids to treat this condition. He had hypothyroidism, autoimmune deficiency and Addison’s disease. He had a duodenal ulcer. He was on testosterone pills when in the White House. At the time of his death, and unrelated to the shooting, he was suffering from adrenal inflammation.
None of these issues are necessarily indication of disqualifications from serving as president. Being ill is not in and of itself a disqualifier. It is only when the mind is affected that medical issues rise to the point of precluding someone from serving. But a transparent administration ought to share medical facts with the public.
#1. Ronald Reagan
In order to downplay public concerns about his health, Reagan promised that he would resign the presidency, if he were to become unfit to carry out the duties of his office.
Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981. The .22 caliber bullet ricocheted off his limousine and went into his lung. The seventy year old president suffered a collapsed lung. The wound was much more life-threatening than those of Presidents McKinley and Garfield. But due to the advances in modern medicine since their time, and also due to Reagan’s positive attitude and overall resilience, Reagan was able to make a complete recovery, though it did take him six months to regain the full measure of his health.
In comparison to this episode of being shot, Ronald Reagan’s other medical issues while in office seem mild. They consisted mostly of vigilance against the development of disease: the removal of benign colon polyps, the treatment of a urinary tract infection with antibiotics, the removal of a precancerous tumor from the colon, the fitting of a hearing aid due to loss of hearing in one ear. If it were not for the high-tech expedients of colonoscopy and the availability of modern medicine, in all likelihood these things that Reagan was being treated for would have gone unnoticed and untreated. While he also suffered from Alzheimer’s, historians differ as to whether or not his facilities were
Did Ronald Reagan’s age or health disqualify him from serving as president? Certainly not. Should Hillary’s advanced age or age-related illnesses preclude her from running for office? Certainly not. She’s younger than Reagan was.
However, the public does have the right to look into the health of a candidate. Transparency in sharing health issues is important. So if we see that a candidate for presidency is much more ill than she lets on, we might be on our guard against another presidential spouse ruling in White House, when not elected. We don’t want Bill Clinton to follow in the footsteps of Edith Wilson.