Posted on 06/08/2004 1:35:10 AM PDT by ambrose
Posted on Tue, Jun. 08, 2004
Reagan's ex-doctor: 'He did not know me'
BY LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
New York Times
John Hutton's last meeting with Ronald Reagan was a bittersweet one, a vivid sign of how much of Reagan's mind had been taken by Alzheimer's disease.
It was about two years ago, Reagan's former doctor recalled in interviews on Sunday and Monday. He had gone to visit the Reagan family at their house in Los Angeles. Hutton, a retired Army brigadier general who had been one of Reagan's White House physicians, was there with his daughter, Beth Shiau, a Navy neonatal nurse. As he recalled, the Rev. Billy Graham was there, too.
"Mr. Reagan was out on the flagstone veranda, seated just where he could gaze out on the city," said Hutton, and "he reached out and shook my hand. His recognition had been failing. He had not known who I was for the last five years, maybe. He looked reasonably sound. He had a wonderful smile. But I could tell there was vacantness behind it."
Reagan displayed his usual friendliness and affability, but his mental deterioration was apparent. "I knew he did not know me," Hutton said.
Hutton stopped formally treating Reagan when he left the White House in 1989. But after the former president announced that he had Alzheimer's disease in 1994, Hutton stayed with him a number of times, each for a week or so, to give Nancy Reagan some relief. Hutton spoke with her often; the last time was just last month.
In recent months, Nancy Reagan "was a little more cautious about leaving, and we would talk on the phone maybe once every week or two weeks," said Hutton, 72, who still teaches surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.
Hutton said he had agreed to speak in a desire to inform the public about Alzheimer's disease and about "the human side of Mr. Reagan."
He said Reagan's death came on fairly quickly, in what had been a relatively stable course of chronic Alzheimer's disease, possibly after food inhaled into his lungs led to aspiration pneumonia. Experts on Alzheimer's disease not connected to Reagan's case said it was logical to assume that aspiration was involved because it is the way many Alzheimer's patients die, even with the best of nursing care.
Hutton said that in his experience, Ronald Reagan was a model patient. Even with advanced Alzheimer's disease, Hutton said, "he still would be cooperative."
"Mrs. Reagan would encourage him to do as much as he could by himself, and sit there and coach him. Occasionally, he would keep trying and finally he would get up out of a chair by himself."
He went on: "We took a walk down the hall together, and he started to lose his balance. Fortunately, I was able to pin him up against the wall. He did look very concerned. I said, 'Mr. President, I will never let you fall.' Then I took him by the arm and we proceeded walking into the library."
That was before Reagan broke his right hip in 2001. "Everybody was amazed really how he went through the operation and never complained of a great deal of discomfort afterward," Hutton said. "Whatever challenge he met, he just took it in stride. He often said: 'Hey, you doctors must have something else to do, some other patients to see. I am doing all right here.'
"The first thing he ate after he broke his hip, Diane Caps, a nurse, gave him a spoonful of ice cream, and he smiled just like in the old days, showing how much he appreciated it," Hutton said.
On Friday, Hutton will be a pallbearer for his former patient.
Rest in peace, Mr. President.
In some ways, I'm glad not to have known all this. God bless Nancy. This is a hard death for many of us, but she is so wonderful.
It makes it a bit easier for me. I have spent a lot of time with Alzheimer's patient and this really has made me feel that his dignity was always intact, even if his mind wasn't.
Sadly, it's not always like that.
His sweet optimism was with him to the very end.
Incredible.
Yes, that's it exactly.
"The first thing he ate after he broke his hip, Diane Caps, a nurse, gave him a spoonful of ice cream, and he smiled just like in the old days, showing how much he appreciated it," Hutton said.
Ronald Reagan was a good man right to the core.
"Everybody was amazed really how he went through the operation and never complained of a great deal of discomfort afterward,"
My father was like that too, also born in 1911 like Mr Reagan. They were the stereotypes of all in their generation weren't they? The WWII vets gave so much and asked for nothing. They never complained about anything. If someone could "bottle" that and get it to every young person in America right now, can you imagine the results?
Once I opened my eyes and saw Nancy looking down at me. "Honey," I said, "I forgot to duck," borrowing Jack Dempsey's line to his wife the night he was beaten by Gene Tunney for the heavyweight championship. Seeing Nancy in the hospital gave me an enormous lift. As long as I live I will never forget the thought that rushed into my head as I looked up into her face. Later I wrote it down in my diary: "I pray I'll never face a day when she isn't there of all the ways God had blessed me, giving her to me was the greatest - beyond anything I can ever hope to deserve."
--Ronald Reagan
As others have mentioned though, it seems illogical that W's numbers would be falling at this time. The news has been largely positive, and his approval numbers are climbing upward again. I would really like to see a detailed breakdown of the respondents to this poll.
Sorry. Posted to the wrong thread.
It was God Almighty that graciously gave the gift of a last gaze to Nancy.
ambrose, thank you for giving us an inside look at something we'd not known. This speaks VOLUMES about the true character of President Reagan.
onyx...another for your collection.
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