Frequently Asked Dead Presidents Questions
How Did Each Dead President Die??
An inquiry seeking the cause of death for one or more of the presidents
is certainly the second most frequently asked question I receive.
Here are the officially recognized causes of death for each man. Some have
been modified as medicine advanced, such that they now differ from the cause
initially listed
on the death certificate. The deaths of John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and
Monroe can probably be better attributed nowadays than to "old age" (no one
dies of that anymore; there's always some root event or cause).
- George Washington
- pneumonia, aggravated by weakening of immune system (caught
cold while riding on his estate, developed pneumonia,
Doctors were called in and they bled him profusely with leeches
[because that's what they did] to the point where he could not
fight the disease. Probably would have survived with different
treatment.
Today, doctors believe Washington died of
an acute streptococchal infection of the larynx,
which caused a painful swelling of the interior
of the larynx resulting in suffocation. A tracheostomy probably
would have saved his life, and indeed one was suggested by the
youngest doctor in attendance, Elisha Dick, but the technique
was new and considered unsafe by the elder physicians.)
- John Adams
- debility (old age; most likely
heart failure caused by arteriosclerosis)
- Thomas Jefferson
- debility (most likely
dehydration resulting from amoebic dysentery)
- James Madison
- debility
- James Monroe
- debility (most likely tuberculosis, caught
after the onset of a cold)
- John Quincy Adams
- paralysis (stroke), at his desk in the House of Representatives. Adams had risen and loudly exclaimed his "No!" vote
to a resolution to present swords to veterans of the Mexican War (which Adams
had strongly opposed) when he became flushed and unable to speak. He then
clutched his chair and fell into the arms of his fellow House members.
- Andrew Jackson
- comsumption, dropsy,
tubercular hemorrhaging
- Martin Van Buren
- asthmatic suffocation
- William Harrison
- pleurisy, pneumonia (gave his inaugural address in snow and
freezing rain without adequate clothing; caught a severe
cold that developed quickly into fatal pneumonia, because
he failed to heed the chills and fever that developed immediately
after the speech, instead appearing, dancing, and drinking at
all of the inaugural balls)
- John Tyler
- bilious fever, respiratory failure
- James Polk
- cholera morbus resulting in debilitating
diarrhea
(nutritive expulsion and dehydration;
buildup of excretive acids in bowels and intestines)
- Zachary Taylor
- heat stroke, bringing on bilious fever, typhoid fever,
and cholera morbus. (Taylor dressed himself in a black high-collar
suit for the July 4, 1850 dedication of the Washington Monument,
got overheated,
then shocked his system by consuming copious
quantities of iced milk and cold cherries, and his internal
organs began to shut down -- basically, he waterlogged himself
to death. William Henry Harrison "got too cold
and died," and Zachary Taylor "got too hot and died.")
- Millard Fillmore
- paralysis (cerebral hemorrhage, stroke)
- Franklin Pierce
- stomach inflammation, caused by years of alchohol's effects on
the walls and linings of his internal organs
- James Buchanan
- respiratory failure, rheumatic gout
- Abraham Lincoln
- assassinated (actually, probably killed by doctors
probing for bullet, but he would have been a "vegetable"
at best had he lived)
- Andrew Johnson
- paralysis (stroke)
- Ulysses Grant
- carcinoma (cancer) of the tongue and tonsils
- Rutherford Hayes
- heart disease
- James Garfield
- assassinated (Actually, Garfield was
definitely killed by his doctors
probing for bullet; he would have completely recovered
otherwise -- the doctors who thought the bullet went where in
fact it did were overruled by their elders who thought otherwise,
and who stuck unclean metal
probes into the President's wounds in vain attempts to locate
the bullet, introducing infection and making brand new holes and
paths
that just confused them all the more. The metal detector
they tried would have worked to find the bullet, but they
didn't think to move him off the metal bedsprings, so instead
they kept
poking, believing that Alexander Graham Bell's invention was
useless.)
- Chester Arthur
- Bright's disease, apoplexy (cerebral hemorrhage, stroke)
- Grover Cleveland
- debility, coronary sclerosis, stroke, or
intestinal obstruction (doctors differed as to the cause)
- Benjamin Harrison
- pneumonia
- William McKinley
- assassinated.
McKinley may have been saved if
doctors knew where the bullet was lodged. Since he
was shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY
there was an interesting new invention on display only
a few yards from where McKinley lay -- the X-Ray
machine! If they had carried him those few yards to
this exhibit, doctors could have determined the exact location
of the bullet, and would have probably
been able to save his life. But as fate would have
it, they did not consider the possibility and he died
some days later from his wounds.
- Theodore Roosevelt
- coronary embolism (assumed),
inflammatory rheumatism
- William Taft
- heart attack
- Woodrow Wilson
- apoplexy, paralysis (stroke) -- had survived a number of minor
and at least two major strokes.
- Warren Harding
- apoplexy (rupture of brain artery, stroke), pneumonia, and enlargement of
the heart, all brought on by high blood pressure (his "friends"
basically killed him with the scandals that racked his
presidency)
- Calvin Coolidge
- heart failure (coronary thrombosis)
- Herbert Hoover
- massive internal hemorrhaging,
bleeding from upper gastrointestinal tract; strained
vascular system
- Franklin Roosevelt
- cerebral hemorrhage (stroke)
- Harry Truman
- minor lung congestion; complexity of organic failures; collapse
of cardiovascular systems
- Dwight Eisenhower
- heart disease (coronary thrombosis)
(One month before his death, Ike underwent necessary surgery
to unblock his intestines. Doctors feared that the surgery would weaken his
heart, but without it, he would die of self-poisoning. The month he lived
after the surgery was possible only through the use of extraordinary life
support measures, for which his doctors were later fiercely criticized.)
- John Kennedy
- assassinated
- Lyndon Johnson
- heart failure
- Richard Nixon
- paralysis (stroke), swelling of the brain
- Gerald Ford
- cerebrovascular disease and diffuse arteriosclerosis
- Ronald Reagan
- pneumonia
