American Presidents Who Suffered Tragic Deaths

in america we tend to think of our presidents as having the best security and unrivaled health care however our leaders are still susceptible to all the functions that make us human like death here are the presidents who suffered the most tragic deaths the country's first president was only about two and a half years into his retirement when he suddenly took ill from start to finish the national constitution center says that washington's illness lasted about 21 hours by late afternoon of the day he passed america's first commander-in-chief knew that the end was near in the centuries since medical professionals have debated exactly what killed the first president and guesses range from diphtheria to an inflammation of the larynx which would have caused the breathing difficulties that he experienced one of the popular contenders now is acute bacterial epiglottitis here's what happened washington had been out riding on a cold damp day and opted to stay in his wet clothes so he wasn't late for dinner the next day he sent for the doctors and according to the university of michigan's dr howard markle if the illness didn't get him the treatment did that included bloodletting and over the course of 12 hours about 40 percent of washington's blood was drained in an attempt to try to open his airway spanish fly was applied in an awful treatment that causes blisters to form on the inside of his throat there was also the administration of enemas additionally washington was given various concoctions to gargle including one mix of butter vinegar and molasses nothing worked and he thanked each doctor for their attempts at saving his life washington died at his home in mount vernon on december 14 1799. he was 67. at monticello say that it's unclear just what killed thomas jefferson at the age of 83 however they also note that in the years leading up to his death jefferson suffered from a massive list of health problems which we know in part thanks to his extensive writings his health started to go downhill after 1818 when he spent some time at the mineral baths of virginia's warm springs it was there that he developed a quote boil on his seat surprisingly in spite of the deep infection on his bottom he continued to take his daily horseback rides that said jefferson's death was likely the result of his treatment being worse than his actual illness jefferson's infection was treated with ointments containing high amounts of mercury and sulfur which did help get rid of the infection but caused all kinds of other problems like the quote chronic bowel problems he suffered from for years then in 1825 he struggled with a bladder issue that necessitated the use of what was basically a catheter this was before sterilization though and the bacterial damage that spread to his kidney sent him into a painful decline bedridden by june 1826 the nation's third president was also suffering from pneumonia and what doctors now believe was prostatic cancer jefferson died on july 4 and since he was mostly in a semi-conscious stupor his last words were unclear zachary taylor made some serious statements as the 12th president including telling the southern states who were threatening to secede that if they did he would order the hanging of anyone caught rebelling against the union that declaration happened in february 1850 by july 9th tyler was dead after just five days of a sudden and brutal illness on july 4th taylor laid the cornerstone for the washington monument ate a lot of fruit drank some milk and hours later he was crippled with agonizing cramps a fever and severe gastrointestinal distress he was then treated within normal remedies like opium mercury chloride and quinine but the symptoms never disappeared and he died shortly after even though it was often repeated that he died from a reaction caused by eating cherries and drinking milk history.com says it's more complicated the official cause was cholera but not everyone's happy with that leading to conspiracy theories that taylor's anti-slavery anti-secessionism stance got him assassinated how true that might be isn't clear when taylor's remains were re-examined in 2014 the chief medical examiner of kentucky announced that the levels of arsenic in his system were completely normal but the autopsy still hasn't been able to prove what really caused the sudden excruciating illness that killed him the medical examiner did add however that it's entirely possible that the medicine tailor was given was more lethal than his actual illness he may have actually recovered from it but the medical theories and practices of the day pretty much assured his death the assassination of president abraham lincoln is one of the most often told stories in american history so most americans have probably already heard how lincoln was shot while attending a play at ford's theater but there are still some questions for example why didn't lincoln have any security at the theater well according to the smithsonian he did and his name was john parker parker was lincoln's only protection that night and he was one of washington dc's first police officers bizarrely parker's career is something out of a bad 90s sitcom filled with reprimands for being drunk on duty visiting local brothels and sleeping on street cars while he was supposed to be on patrol on the night lincoln was shot parker had been three hours late for his shift guarding the president and during the intermission he decided to head next door to the star saloon where booth had been drinking up his courage earlier for a few beverages parker was still there when the shooting took place and he was blamed by other officers and by mary todd lincoln for being the reason lincoln died that night immediately after the shooting lincoln was taken to the nearby peterson boarding house where more than 40 people came and went from his room as he lay dying among those at lincoln's side was andrew johnson who left when it became clear he needed to get ready for his own inevitable inauguration while ulysses s grant might be remembered as one of the nation's most famous generals the story of his death is nothing short of heartbreaking it started in 1884. the year grant realized that a shady investment parker had convinced him to invest his entire life savings into a pyramid scheme that ultimately collapsed the bad investment left civil war hero and former president penniless even worse a few months later a visit to the doctor confirmed that his chronic throat pain was advanced throat and tongue cancer confronted with his imminent death grant realized that his previous financial miscalculation was going to leave his wife and family destitute so with the help of his old friend mark twain he threw everything into one last ditch effort to secure their future grant signed a contract to write his memoirs for twain's new publishing house what followed was a race against time and his advance in cancer fueled by pure grit determination as well as morphine and topical cocaine to dull the pain grant wrote as much as 10 000 words per day burst in his own hand and later while whispering to a stenographer within less than a year grant finished his 366 000 word memoir and when twain brought news that he'd already pre-sold one hundred thousand copies grant knew he'd provided for his family and twain realizes at once that what grant has written is a monument in american literature grant died on july 23 1885 seven days after he finished writing when the book was published julia grant received royalties that today would equal around 12 million dollars when charles guiteau shot president james garfield at the baltimore and potomac train station the first shot nicked his arm while the second embedded itself in his abdomen the 20th president remained completely conscious and shocked throughout the entire episode after the shooting garfield was subjected to some of the most brutal treatment in the medical history of the white house if he hadn't been there's a chance garfield might have lived the shooting happened in 1881 and it was a time when things like germ theory and sterilization hadn't gone mainstream yet and that's important to keep in mind because it puts things in perspective garfield was taken to the white house where doctors became determined to remove the bullet from his abdomen the working theory was that if it were left in it would cause something called morbid poisoning and essentially causes organs to fail not only did doctors not wash their hands before they went poking around inside his guts the three-inch wound left by the bullet was ultimately open to 20 inches and unsurprisingly infection and sepsis set in garfield survived for 80 days during which he lost around 80 pounds his last words were quote this pain this pain the official cause of death was massive hemorrhage blood poisoning and a heart attack william mckinley was at buffalo's pan-american exposition on september 6 1901 when he decided to ignore the advice of his advisors and hold a meet and greet handshake session with members of the public that says the national constitution center is when he was shot by leon childish initially it was believed mckinley was going to survive doctors were so confident mckinley would live that his vice president theodore roosevelt didn't return from his family vacation one bullet was deflected by the buttons on his suit and the other punctured his stomach and lodged in his abdomen the emergency surgery that was performed was successful and just a few days later the president was even requesting copies of the newspaper to be brought to him in bed on september 13th though mckinley took a turn for the worse the unsanitary conditions in which he was operated on which were still pretty common for the time it led to gangrene forming on his stomach that in turn led to a fatal case of blood poisoning and he died early on the morning of the 14th countries across the globe declared official mourning periods to grieve the beloved president warren g harding might not be a household name anymore but when he died suddenly in 1923 he was absolutely a topic of household conversation harding was on a 15 000 mile speaking tour when he started feeling pretty funky assuming that the indigestion fever and difficulty breathing coupled with chronic signs of heart disease was just stressed from the trip he kept going until that is the evening of august 2nd when he suddenly collapsed and died what followed was a lot of finger pointing from the public who accused harding's doctors of everything from malpractice to incompetence then in 1930 a former harding official published a book claiming that harding's long-suffering wife florence had finally gotten so sick of his numerous affairs that she'd decided to put it into it once and for all the lethal way florence's case wasn't helped much by the fact that she'd ordered her husband embalmed immediately before any autopsy could be performed although the wild rumors that harding had been poisoned were ultimately debunked the scandals for the recently deceased president kept piling up there were even rumors that harding had at least one illegitimate child while in the white house but here's the bottom line harding died of a heart attack it's no less tragic of an ending for an american president just less scandalous it's commonly said that franklin delano roosevelt hid the fact that he was crippled by polio from the public but that's not entirely true major news outlets regularly mentioned his wheelchair and he very publicly upgraded the white house to make it more wheelchair accessible he did however hide other health problems that included things like hypertension and a severe iron deficiency in 1944 fdr was looking at running for his fourth term and according to the washington post his health was so bad at that point that his doctors warned him not to do it he suffered from fatigue and exhaustion and a listen to his lungs revealed to doctors at walter reed that fluid was building up there he was very slowly drowning fdr historians say knew that he was dying but he also knew that world war ii was coming to an end and he firmly believed that he needed to be there for it fdr easily won another term but while putting on a happy and optimistic face in public he struggled with severe chest pains high blood pressure and illnesses like bronchitis on april 12 1945 fdr complained of a massive headache and died two hours later he was 63. there are few moments in american history that are as famous as the assassination of john f kennedy everyone has seen the footage and here's a brief recap jfk was gearing up for announcing a run for a second term as president and as part of a series of campaign engagements he was in dallas texas on november 22nd 1963. gunfire erupted over his motorcade at 12 30 pm and he was pronounced dead half an hour later the flash apparently official president kennedy died at 1 pm central standard time at 2 38 his vice president lyndon b johnson was sworn in as the new president assassin lee harvey oswald had already been arrested more than half a million people made the trip to washington dc to pay their respects in person and of all the photos of his death perhaps the most moving is the one that captures his son standing by the side of the road giving his father one final salute that son was john f kennedy jr the assassination also gave rise to an almost insane number of conspiracy theories and while nothing's been proved on the alien front yet here's a weird bit of trivia the infamous car that jfk was killed in was only briefly impounded for evidence gathering the lincoln continental was then returned to active duty at the white house where it was used by johnson nixon ford and carter it's now at the henry ford museum lyndon b johnson took over after the assassination of jfk only to leave the presidential office behind in 1968 from there he did what he loved best tending the animals on his texas ranch it was on his texas ranch that johnson suffered a massive heart attack on january 22nd 1973. the former president died that same day in the years after the presidency johnson became increasingly despondent that the good things he'd done like overseeing the civil rights act the voting rights act and the fair housing act were overshadowed by the giant stain that was the vietnam war according to pbs his depression was deep so deep that he'd sometimes just sit and listen to simon and garfunkel's bridge over troubled water on repeat with three heart attacks already on his medical record and regular heart and chest pains it's not entirely surprising that johnson's doctors had warned him way back in 1955 that if he continued to smoke he would die early still after 1968 johnson went right back into his chain smoking habit claiming that it was better than facing his nerves and depression nicotine-free lbj said that he knew he was going to die young which is why he didn't run for re-election he told the atlantic my daddy was only 62 when he died and i figured that with my history of heart trouble i'd never lived through another four years the american people had had enough of presidents dying in office johnson gasty would die at the age of 64 and he did it was 1994 when ronald reagan went to the mayo clinic reagan had been getting increasingly forgetful and he and his wife nancy already knew that something was terribly wrong the diagnosis was alzheimer's and on november 5th of that year reagan penned what would be his last open letter to the country in it the former president wrote we feel it is important to share the alzheimer's diagnosis with you i only wish there was some way i could spare nancy from this painful experience when the time comes i am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage ronald reagan died on june 5th 2004 after what nancy reagan called a quote long goodbye a family friend told newsweek we all said goodbye 10 years ago when he still knew who some of us were she took responsibility in caring for what was left by the time he broke his hip in a fall in 2001 doctors gave reagan three months to live he would of course live another three years but family insiders revealed that while they were prepared for him to go nancy's grief began to set in only after her husband was buried the insiders told newsweek that was really the beginning of her pain she's in that house all by herself james baker iii george h.w bush's former secretary of state was among the last to visit him before he died in 2018 recognizing his old friend the 41st president asked where are we going bake when baker replied that they were going to heaven the former president agreed telling him that's where i want to go that was november 30th and those who knew him best had been surprised that he'd lived that long after burying his beloved barbara a few months earlier in april he really wasn't ready to go after barbara died in fact he said so when he was hospitalized days after her death abc news says that those closest to him were preparing for him to follow her his white house photographer said we thought you know he's just dying of a broken heart bush was also suffering from vascular parkinson's according to the michael j fox foundation this particular condition is caused by a series of small sudden and unpredictable strokes that impact a person's mobility balance and ability to speak bush had been confined to a wheelchair since 2012 and in 2017 he was the target of accusations of improper touching and groping while posing for pictures according to usa today medical experts had explained that could have also been caused by his illness as the former president's diagnosis included possible symptoms like performing involuntary behaviors that were not entirely under his control or volition they cited things like bush's seemingly forced smile as evidence noting it was a common symptom known as quote abnormal grimacing thankfully george h.w bush's passing was peaceful check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one

Channel: Grunge

Views: 390,962

Keywords: grunge, presidents, history, us presidents, george washington

Id: NAwc65cqgZk

Length: 20min 15sec (1215 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 21 2021