Posted on 01/14/2011 10:34:16 AM PST by Arec Barrwin
Reagan Son Claims Dad Had Alzheimer's as President
2011 is a big year for Ronald Reagan fans, being the centennial of his February 6 birth in Tampico, Ill. But youngest son Ron Reagan is spoiling the good cheer with a new book that suggests the Gipper suffered from Alzheimer's disease while in the White House, a claim dismissed by Reagan's doctors and outside experts. "Had the diagnosis been made in, say, 1987, would he have stepped down?" Ron asks, regarding the disease confirmed in 1994. "I believe he would have," he writes in My Father At 100: A Memoir, due in bookstores Tuesday. [Poll: Who do you think was the worst president?]
In addition to challenging the former president's doctors, Ron also reports for the first time that Reagan, right after falling off a horse six months out of the White House, underwent brain surgery, denied by Reagan associates.
Let's start with the Alzheimer's diagnosis. It was announced in 1994. While it prompted some to suggest they knew Reagan had the disease as president, his four White House doctors said they saw no evidence of it. But Ron, who became a liberal and atheist, disappointing his dad, suggests he saw hints of confusion and "an out-of-touch president" during the 1984 campaign and again in 1986, when his father couldn't recall the names of California canyons he was flying over. Arguing his case in the book, Ron adds that doctors today know that the disease can be in evidence before being recognized. "The question, then, of whether my father suffered from the beginning stages of Alzheimer's while in office more or less answers itself," he writes. [See a gallery of caricatures of Reagan and other pols.]
Besides playing amateur doctor, Ron Reagan reveals, if true, brain surgery on his dad never before reported. He accurately reports that Reagan, after leaving the presidency, was bucked from a horse on July 4, 1989, while in Mexico. Ron tells of how his dad, after initially refusing medical help, was transported to a San Diego hospital. "Surgeons opening his skull to relieve pressure on the brain emerged from the operating room with the news that they had detected what they took to be probable signs of Alzheimer's disease." Several Reagan associates, however, say there was no surgery in San Diego.
What's more there is no reporting about any San Diego operation on Reagan. News reports at the time of his fall say Reagan was flown to a hospital in Arizona, where he was treated for scrapes and bruises and released after five hours.
There were no reports of Reagan with a shaved head or skull stitches later that month when he served as a guest TV announcer at the July 11 baseball All-Star Game in Anaheim, Calif., or when he was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City on July 21.
In September, he went to the Mayo Clinic, where a small burr hole was drilled to relieve a fluid buildup due to the fall.
Ron Reagan doesn't mention this, but says that Reagan visited the Mayo Clinic in 1990 for tests that "confirmed the initial suspicion of Alzheimer's." Reagan's post-presidency history, documented in several archives like University of Texas, reveal no such visit. And Dr. John E. Hutton Jr. his doctor from 1984 through Reagan's retirement, told the New York Times that Reagan didn't show the tell-tale symptoms until 1993.
Ron Reagan won't talk about his book until its release, says his publisher Viking. The publisher also didn't provide documents backing up the San Diego operation claim.
Here are key excerpts from Ron Reagan about his dad's situation from My Father At 100, A Memoir.
Early hints that Ronald Reagan's mind was fuzzy:
"Three years into his first term as president, though, I was feeling the first shivers of concern that something beyond mellowing was affecting my father. We had always argued over this issue or that, rarely with anything approaching belligerence, but vigorously all the same. He generally had the advantage of practiced talking points backed up by staff research, but I was an unabashed, occasionally effective advocate for my own positions. 'He told me you make him feel stupid,' my mother once shared, to my alarm. I didn't want my father to feel stupid. If he was going to shoulder massive responsibility, I wanted him to feel on top of his game. If he was going to fulfill his duties as president, he would have to be." Pages 204-205
"Watching the first of his two debates with 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, I began to experience the nausea of a bad dream coming true. At 73, Ronald Reagan would be the oldest president ever reelected. Some voters were beginning to imagine grandpa—who can never find his reading glasses—in charge of a bristling nuclear arsenal, and it was making them nervous. Worse, my father now seemed to be giving them legitimate reason for concern. My heart sank as he floundered his way through his responses, fumbling with his notes, uncharacteristically lost for words. He looked tired and bewildered." Page 205.
"My father might himself have suspected that all was not as it should be. As far back as August 1986 he had been alarmed to discover, while flying over the familiar canyons north of Los Angeles, that he could no longer summon their names." Page 218.
The July 4, 1989 horse bucking and discovery of Alzheimer's:
"In July 1989, barely six months out of office, my father visited friends in Mexico. While out riding he was thrown when his horse shied at something in the trailside scrub. That my father, even at age 78, would be bucked off his mount was, in itself, an ominous sign. It's a wonder he didn't break any bones, but he did hit his head hard enough to cause a sizable contusion. After initially refusing medical attention, he ultimately relented and was transported to a hospital in San Diego. Surgeons opening his skull to relieve pressure on the brain emerged from the operating room with the news that they had detected what they took to be probable signs of Alzheimer's disease. No formal diagnosis was given, as far as I know. I have since learned from a doctor who happened to be interning at the hospital when my father was brought in that surgeons involved in his care, in what my informant characterized as 'shameful' behavior, violated my father's right to medical privacy by subsequently gossiping about his condition." Page 217.
"Doctors recommended to my mother that further tests of cognition be conducted the following year to measure any decline. Those tests, at the Mayo Clinic, confirmed the initial suspicion of Alzheimer's." Page 217.
"I've seen no evidence that my father (or anyone else) was aware of his medical condition while he was in office. Had the diagnosis been made in, say 1987, would he have stepped down? I believe he would have. Far less was known about the disease then, of course, than is known now. Today we are aware that the physiological and neurological changes associated with Alzheimer's can be in evidence years, even decades, before identifiable symptoms arise. The question, then, of whether my father suffered from the beginning stages of Alzheimer's while in office more or less answers itself." Pages 217-218.
"From the article:
And Dr. John E. Hutton Jr. his doctor from 1984 through Reagan's retirement, told the New York Times that Reagan didn't show the tell-tale symptoms until 1993."
I think Dr.Hutton's word should be good enough for any and ALL FReepers.
I don't know what happened in his childhood , but I simply do not know how this little weasel is the son of such a wonderful man. Maybe Ronald wasn't around a lot when Ron was growing up, who knows. But I can tell you that Ron Jr. is the typical slimy opportunistic liberal. I mean he used his Dad's funeral to spout off for crying out loud!
This little prick needs to just stick to dog shows.
What an ungrateful, wretched son. Without his father’s name, he’d be busing tables at a Denny’s.
This guy has been riding his Dad’s coattails for years. When is enough, enough?
He is truly disgusting!
Is it possible to do DNA testing of this little creep to determine that he really is Ronald Reagan’s biological offspring? There is no resemblance, in looks, build, character, or any other attribute.
You can actually see both GHWB and Bar in W. I can’t see a scintilla of RWR in Ron.
Let me see if I have this correct.......little Ronnie decided to become a liberal and an atheist and HE noticed that his father was confused?!?!?!
If you want to see confusion, Ronnie, step in front of a mirror.
P.S. You have to look at the shiny side for this to work, Ronnie.
EODGUY
You can say that again. Ron will be outed as the liar that he is. He should have waited until all those who knew Reagan were dead before writing his stupid little book! Too many people remember President Reagan all too well. This jerk will just tick them off. What a scumbag he is!
Non Reagan does it again!
So? He was still able to ‘president’ rings around obungler.
Who cares. Pretty good eight year term except for the amnesty but otherwise great job.
Ron, Jr. is the manchild Ann Coulter called “the world’s living testament to the limits of genetics.”
If only every president was as retarded as the left portrays Reagan... sigh.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
— Ronald Reagan
The left hates heroes. A hero demonstrates the importance of a single person making big things happen. A hero is an individual -- as opposed to a group, or a tribe, or a "people." A hero defies victimhood, undermining the left's entire world view.There are big and great things that are publicly glorified as heroism. We can all be awed by mighty acts of courage and will that can move great forces in the world. Such people and such feats are important to history, and inspire us to live according to the best within us.
But in everybody's life there are countless choices, conflicts, and opportunities that require courage, integrity, a willingness to face hard truths, make difficult decisions that might have big consequences, and take action that you would rather not have to take.
Ronald Reagan saw the heroic in ordinary Americans. That is one of the things that I loved about him as a president, for everywhere he looked in America, he saw ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
— Dr. Joel Wade
"Our enemies may be irrational, even outright insane, driven by nationalism, religion, ethnicity or ideology. They do not fear the United States for its diplomatic skills or the number of automobiles and software programs it produces. They respect only the firepower of our tanks, planes and helicopter gunships."
— Ronald Reagan
"Already the hour is late. Government has laid its hand on health, housing, farming, industry, commerce, education, and to an ever-increasing degree interferes with the people's right to know. ... We approach the point of no return when government becomes so huge and entrenched that we fear the consequences of upheaval and just go along with it."
— Ronald Reagan
Hear hear! I was trying to understand the issues of the day and politics in general and could not figure out why the press distorted what I hear this man say. There was no doubt Ronaldus Magnus was a true Patriot, and I loved it.
Now that I’m clued in, I admire him all the more. His convictions were evidently true to heart because they didn’t change, regardless of his health. That this sap of a son is trying to discredit him in any way says more about the son than it does about the father.
“in 1986, when his father couldn’t recall the names of California canyons he was flying over.”
Lapses in long-term memory are not a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. It is the inability to form new memories that is the warning sign.
There is now real hope for a cure to this terrible disease, and it is probably in your kitchen cabinet:
http://www.wellnesstrader.com/evidence/Turmeric-Alzheimers";
Interesting link, thanks. I’ve been taking it for it’s anti-inflammatory properties in maintaining remission of my UC.
Lapses in long-term memory are not a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. It is the inability to form new memories that is the warning sign.
Ronald Reagan, with full blown Alzheimers, dementia, paraplegia, etc etc etc was still more of a president than our current idiot in chief. His son, Ron is a complete dolt..Michael is great .....wasn’t one of them adopted???maybe not, oh well...
OMG I Remember that skit LOL!
Would be something if Ron Prescott Reagan come down with Alzehermir in his later life
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