The Health and Controversial Death of George Washington

Abstract

He died of a larynx-related illness in MountVernon, Va., on Dec. 14, 1799, at age 67, nearly 3 years after completing his second term as President.Assume that medical practice in George Washington's day had paralleled that of the 21st century. Washington's physician would have had his medical records on file, complete with his personal and family history, physical examination findings, and test results. Such a record would have shown that although Washington's mother had survived until the then-exceptional age of 82, his inheritance with respect to health was otherwise essentially poor. Members of the Washington family were generally short-lived. George's great-grandfather John Washington died at age 46, his grandfather Lawrence at 38, and his father Augustine at 49. An impressive array of illnessesWashington's strong and stalwart appearance notwithstanding, his personal medical history included an impressive array of illnesses, some of them serious. Once he was grown, the earliest entry in his chart would probably have been made in November 1751, when at age 19 he was "strongly attacked with the Small Pox" during his stay on the island of Barbados in the West Indies. 1 Soon after Washington returned to America in March 1752, he suffered an attack of pleurisy. Aware of young Washington's exposure to tuberculosis, with which his brother Lawrence had been afflicted, his physician might have suspected that George had also contracted this malady and had eventually overcome it over a period of years. Auscultation and x-ray might have detected the presence of healed scar tissue or an active lesion.The recurrent chills and fever that had plagued Washington at intervals of many years and that mercifully

Critical cardiac care in children: looking backward and looking forward

“…An example of the changing "truth" occurred in relation to George Washington, the former President and senior leader of our nascent country. On December 12, 1799, Washington suffered from an upper respiratory infection (3). His physicians applied a painful "blister of cantharides", better known as "Spanish fly", to Washington's throat to cause "counter-irritation".…”

Transparency of Appropriateness Criteria

“…Subsequent attempts by his physicians then drained a total of more than 50% of his blood volume over the course of 13 h. Shortly after Washington's death, Dr. James Bricknell disagreed with the extent of bloodletting, although his sentiments were withheld from the public until they were published in 1903. "Estimating the quantity of blood removed to be 82 ounces, he bemoaned the lack of clinical wisdom and appropriateness" (4). "Very few of the most robust young men in the world could survive such a loss of blood; but the body of an aged person must be so exhausted, and all his power so weakened by it as to make his death speedy and inevitable" (5).…”

“…certain procedures, these documents brought to mind the story of how George Washington's doctors contributed to his rapid demise (4). The former president contracted probable epiglottitis, for which his 2 senior physicians prescribed 6 to 8 pints of bloodletting.…”

Tracheotomy: Historical Review

“…The operation was performed in the patient's bed, at home, with no adequate assistance 34 . George Washington had respiratory distress in 1799 with what was thought to be quinsy, retrospectively diagnosed in recent years as epiglottitis 35 …”