FDR May Not Have Suffered from Polio, Claim Texas Doctors

Lubbock, TX, Avalanche-Journal ^ | 11-01-03 | AP

[Theodore R.]

Roosevelt may not have suffered from polio, claim Texas doctors Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) — Clinical evidence shows that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was probably misdiagnosed with paralyzing polio more than 80 years ago, researchers said in a new study released Friday.

Texas doctors suggest the four-term president's paralysis was caused not by poliomyelitis but by Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disease that causes the immune system to attack the nervous system.

"We feel from the clinical evidence, which is all that exists, that it's more likely that he had Guillain-Barre syndrome," Dr. Armond S. Goldman, emeritus professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, told The Associated Press.

But Goldman added: "There is no way we can rule out the possibility of poliomyelitis. We felt it was unlikely, but we weren't there. We did not examine him. He had very fine physicians who were experts in their field who did."

Goldman was the lead author of the study, which was published today in the Journal of Medical Biography, a publication of the Royal Society of Medicine Press.

Roosevelt was diagnosed after swimming in 1921 at the age of 39. The researchers acknowledge that Roosevelt's vigorous exercise preceding the illness, fever during the initial phase and permanent paralysis were consistent with a polio diagnosis. But they maintain that other symptoms were inconsistent with polio.

Roosevelt's age, the pattern of his paralysis and the pain he experienced all point toward Guillain-Barre syndrome, they said.

The study drew skepticism from some.

"I think it's a significant stretch," said Dr. Marinos Dalakas, chief of the neuromuscular diseases section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Dalakas said it's reasonable to consider an alternative diagnosis. Over the past 20 years, he said he has seen patients who were diagnosed with polio and determined that they suffered from other neurological diseases.

But he said the fever and other factors would strongly indicate polio.

"It is pretty amazing when people try to rewrite history," said Martin Harmon, spokesman for the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs, Ga. "Obviously, the diagnosis at the time was in the middle of the polio epidemic. It would be hard for me to believe that the doctors could not recognize the same symptoms that he had among the rest of our population."

Raymond J. Teichman, supervisory archivist at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y., said he was unaware of anyone ever theorizing that Roosevelt suffered from a disease other than polio.

Teichman said of the study: "Of course, this is speculative since the various tests that they would have for this disease were not performed at the time, and I don't think they were developed until the latter half of the last century."

Goldman doesn't dispute that, stressing that the study's point wasn't to criticize the physicians of the past. With the same information they had, he probably would have made the same diagnosis, he said.

He said a different diagnosis "would not have changed a thing."

"The treatments for Guillain-Barre syndrome did not come about until the latter part of the 20th century," he said. "There's no way for physicians to have known what to do even if they diagnosed it as Guillain-Barre syndrome."

At the time of his diagnosis, Roosevelt was a rising Democratic political star who had won the vice presidential nomination in 1920.

He struggled to walk again, crawling on the floor and trying for hours to stand. Years passed before he accepted that he would depend on a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

But his political ambitions remained stronger than ever. In 1928, after a campaign in which he often had to be carried by aides, he was elected governor of New York. In 1932, in the wake of the Great Depression, his promise of "a new deal for the American people" won him the first of his four elections as president.

A different diagnosis than polio would not change his political legacy, one expert said.

"It would be fascinating to know if it weren't polio, but Roosevelt still had to overcome his disability, which was paralysis, to serve effectively as president," said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian and contributing editor to American History magazine.

[Theodore R.]

One can have Guillain-Barre and still walk. That disease is name for two French doctors who identified it maybe a century ago.

[Sgt_Schultze]

There's also no evidence that FDR was not just a lazy S.O.B. After all, the CBS standard for speculation (courtesy Les Moonpies commenting about The Reagans), is that you can say whatever you want to about another person, because, while there is nothing on record to confirm your charge, there is also nothing official to contradict your speculation.

[MEG33]

I knew a man with it that couldn't walk.I think these people are wrong about FDR,though.

[Timesink]

Dig FDR up! Let's run some DNA tests! Maybe the Dems can clone him and have a new God to worship!

[Tijeras_Slim]

I think FDR couldn't walk 'cause he had is head up his ...

[Theodore R.]

The Democrats have long worshipped FDR. But there is now a problem. The mass of Democrat voters now are too young to have any memory of FDR, and their "dumbed-down" schools have mostly assigned him to the category of "dead white males," and even the Democrat icon is "not taught."

[Theodore R.]

I have an aunt, 84, with G.B., and she can walk but not great distances, probably no more than a mile at a time, if that much. The disease can hit every year or so, and she is at the point of death, but has thus far recovered fully after a few weeks. There is no way to prevent G.B. attacks.

I also doubt that FDR had G.B., as I understand this disease.

[aristeides]

Speaking of FDR's health, it drastically deteriorated after he came back from the Teheran Conference at the end of 1943. He had what was called a "Teheran flu" for months, and he never really got over it in the year and a half or so he lived after his return.

The Russians used an allegation of an assassination plot to get FDR to stay at the Soviet Embassy in Teheran during the conference. There were suspicions after his return that he had been poisoned. If he had died, the archleftist Henry Wallace would have succeeded to the presidency.

Interestingly, Winston Churchill was also very sick after leaving the Teheran Conference, nearly died when he stopped over in North Africa, and was convalescing for weeks.

[Theodore R.]

Thanks for the history lesson on FDR and Churchill. I only vaguely recall their illnesses after Teheran. Maybe "Uncle Joe" did try to have them poisoned. What would Lillian Hellman and her friends say about that?

[razorback-bert]

Roosevelt was diagnosed after swimming in 1921 at the age of 39.

I had polio as kid and can remember the fear it was being spread by public pools. The age factor has bothered me for years, polio was a well known disease and since it struck very young children, there was a lot of sympathy for its' victims. Guillain-Barre or some other less known disease wouldn't have garnered as much sympathy.

[_Jim]

But Goldman added:

"There is no way we can rule out the possibility of poliomyelitis. ..."

Okay ...

[_Jim]

MY Mom had polio, incidentently, and lost the ability to walk ...

[reformed_democrat]

Interestingly, Winston Churchill was also very sick after leaving the Teheran Conference, nearly died when he stopped over in North Africa, and was convalescing for weeks.

Did Churchill also stay at the Russian Embassy?

Ever since I read Treason, I've been interested in how our history could have been changed if all the plots against the US had succeeded.

[genefromjersey]

FDR ????

Isn't he still DEAD ??

[gcruse]

Yes, but "WGAF?" seems churlish.