JFK MD
Last Friday I had the priviledge of attending a History of Medicine lecture in my old second year lecture hall. Actually, the main purpose of attending this lecture was to partake in the free lunch that was prominently displayed on the event flyers. Maybe a pizza, perhaps a nice pasta salad, per chance a fine collection of mini-quiches (the medical student devotes much of her or his free time to the scavenging of free food). However, as this talk was not funded by a pharmaceutical giant, the food was scant and had completely disappeared by the time I got there. Of course, had there been ample food provided by a pharmaceutical giant, I would obviously have not eaten it in protest. Well... no. Obviously not.
But the topic of the talk genuintely intersted me, so I stayed despite my rumbles of hunger. "John F. Kennedy's Failed Back Syndrome." A guy was presenting on the effects that JFK's constant back problems had on his presidency. Now, JFK also had a lot of other health problems, including Addison's disease, but he got the most trouble from his constant back pain. Apparently this pain, and the treatments that he employed to treat the pain, had a lot of impact on his personal, public, and political life.
For example, there is this theory that had JFK not been wearing his back braces, he would not have received the second, fatal shot on that fateful day in Dallas. Apparently, as his back condition worsened, he used both a lumbar support girdle and 12-feet of ace bandage wrap to support his back. All this support, according to some theorists, was perhaps a little too supportive, as it did not allow him to slump to the ground after getting the first shot in the neck. The lecturer did a frame-by-frame analysis of some home video footage of the assassination, to show that while some other guy in the car got down on the ground after getting shot, Kennedy bascially sat bolt upright the whole time. Interesting.
Also interesting was the insight into how JFK's back problems affected his love life. Poor Jackie O. One of his many lovers wrote an autobiography and stated that "kennedy was accustomed to being the pommel horse, allowing the women to be the gymnasts" or something like that. Poor, poor Jackie O.
But here is the most fascinating thing: Did you know that the Personal Physician to the President during JFK's presidency was.... A WOMAN?!? Its true! I had no idea. Dr. Janet Travell was named to this post by kennedy himself in 1960. She was the first woman to hold it, and after the assassination, continued on as personal physician to Lyndon Johnson. Crazy, huh? A lady? In the white house? Making important health decisions that could potentially affect the national security of the United States of America? And in 1960 to boot. Who knew?
She sounds like a pretty awesome dame, and I have instant respect for any woman who graduated from medical school in 1926. Especially if she managed to do so at the top of her class. She is also affectionately known as the Mother of Myofascial-Trigger Point Knowldege. But just to her friends. Janet Travell is my new hero.
duder! My dad also told me that Kennedy had this crazy cherry-picker machine that would lift him up to the second floor of the white house because he couldn't deal with the stairs sometimes. SO EMO! It's interesting what a different time that was--from FDR, who reporters had an unspoken respectful agreement never to photograph in his wheelchair, to JFK, whose physical problems were not turned into screaming headlines...but now, if our president had such physical problems, we would hear about them constantly, alarmingly. I think that's interesting.
Yeah, its kind of funny. On one hand, I can see why the public has a right to know about the health problems of its chief of state that could interfere with the execution of his chiefly duties. Like, if they required a whole lot of narcotics to control their pain problems, or had a seizure disorder, or had multiple heart attacks and might drop dead at any second. Maybe we should know about that? But things are so sensationalized now that a significant health problem would completely prevent anyone from being elected president. The lecturer said that if JFK were running today, there is no way that he would have gotten elected. There would be so much more scrutiny. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Another interesting thing about JFK was his Addison's Disease, a story which broke because his surgeon, when writing up cases of surgery in patients who have adrenal insufficiency, referred to "Lt. JK, laminectomy" (or similar words). It is felt that JFK's behaviour may have been influenced by the steroid dose he was taking - it was low at the time of the Bay of Pigs, high at the time of the Cuba confrontation.
u know that video u called 'some home video' wood b the Zapruder Film and was a very cruetial piece of evidence and the other guy in the car that was the govener of Texas. JFK's back problem originated in his collage years when he ruptered a disc. then to his WWII days when he almost died due to a Japanese destroyer running into his PT boat and splitting it in half JFK wuz thrust into a steel support beam and ruptured the same disc. he wuz a War Hero and a great president, even though some people don't give him the recognition. iwatched the history channel. btw if u cant deal w/ stairs ur not emo.