Occlusion

Dwight David Eisenhower, 67, stood in a raw, whipping wind at Washington National Airport one morning last week, fulfilling one of the endless responsibilities of the President of the U.S. He was there to welcome Morocco's King Mohammed V on a state visit (see below). Now and again the President pulled a white handkerchief out of his overcoat pocket and blew his nose. While the King's arrival speech was repeated in Arabic, French and English, while the national anthems of the U.S. and Morocco were played, while a 21-gun salute was fired, the President, standing bareheaded, began to look edgy and uncomfortable. When he got back to the White House after a long procession downtown, the President told Mrs. Eisenhower and his physician, Dr. Howard McC. Snyder, major general, U.S.A. (M.C.), that he felt a chill coming on. He went to bed, asked for an extra blanket and a hot-water bottle.

That day, Old Soldier Dwight Eisenhower did not stay in bed long. At 2:40 p.m. he got up, went down to his office in the White House and began dictating to his secretary, Mrs. Ann Whitman. Just before 4 p.m. he told Mrs. Whitman that he could not go on; he definitely felt a chill, might be catching the flu. Once again he went to his living quarters, sent for Dr. Snyder, went to bed. Soon he asked for something to keep him warm--an extra blanket, a hot-water bottle. This time Dr. Snyder made an ominous discovery: the President was not pronouncing his words sharply; the word "international" came out "internatt-nl."

First Evening. At once Dr. Snyder called Walter Reed Army Hospital. Two weeks before, the President had taken a top-to-toe physical examination at Walter Reed, been pronounced "in excellent health." Now Walter Reed's Major General Leonard Heaton, surgeon-in-charge of the President's June 1956 operation for ileitis, hurried to the White House with specialists in neurology and internal medicine. The doctors found the President's temperature normal, blood pressure 130 over 80, pulse 64 and regular, no headache, nausea, vomiting, impairment of consciousness or breathing, no convulsions, stiffness of the neck, paralysis or abnormal reflexes. But the doctors began to move nonetheless from the crucial symptom of mild aphasia toward a tentative diagnosis.

At 6:20 p.m. the nation got its first word that the President was ill. He was suffering from a chill, said a White House bulletin, and he would not be able to attend a state dinner that evening for the King of Morocco; nor would he be able to go to Cleveland the following night to deliver a planned nationwide TV address. The President slept on under mild sedation, awakening at 8 p.m. to take a light supper. Then he read a western novel for half an hour before dropping off to sleep, again under mild sedation.

The doctors had handed their early diagnosis to a small, inner White House circle--Mamie Eisenhower, Assistant to the President Sherman Adams, Deputy Assistant to the President Major General Wilton ("Jerry") Persons. The diagnosis: Eisenhower had suffered an occlusion of a small branch of the middle cerebral (brain) artery on the left side; the occlusion, or blockage, might have been caused either by a small clot or a vascular spasm (see MEDICINE). In short, though the White House would not use the word, the President had suffered a stroke.

Dr. Snyder and Sherman Adams decided, for the time, to describe the President's illness to the country as a chill. Their reasons: 1) to permit the doctors to recheck and confirm their diagnosis; 2) to avoid alarming the country and the world in the absence of confirmed findings. White House Staff Secretary Andrew Goodpaster called Presidential Press Secretary James Hagerty, who was in Paris laying the groundwork for the President's scheduled visit to the NATO Council meeting Dec. 16, to ask him to come back to Washington. When word of the President's illness reached him in a Paris hotel lobby, Jim Hagerty wept.

Second Day. Through Tuesday morning, tension mounted at the White House. The President slept till 5 a.m., lay quietly in bed till 7:15 a.m., was examined by the doctors again. Key officials began to slip quietly into the White House--the Vice President, now informed, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Attorney General William Rogers. The White House press lobby began to fill, and the pressure piled up against Mrs. Anne Williams Wheaton, associate press secretary, who was standing in for Hagerty. At 8:55 Mrs. Wheaton put out a bulletin that the President was "progressing very well,", but she did not explain from what. At 10:25 a.m., with the strain beginning to show, Mrs. Wheaton then pronounced the first public words on the President's illness that sounded serious. "His doctors," she said, "are making a further evaluation of the case at this time." At once the question came pounding in: Why is it necessary to evaluate a chill?

At 2:58 p.m. a keyed-up crowd of newsmen swarmed into Mrs. Wheaton's office (see PRESS) as the first full medical bulletin on the state of the President was passed out. "The report speaks for itself," said Mrs. Wheaton, her face ashen, her lips quivering. "Although the present condition is mild and is expected to be transitory in nature," said the doctors' statement, "it will require a period of rest and substantially decreased activity estimated at several weeks." At 6:15 p.m., while the news was dinning misleadingly and shockingly about the country, a team of four neurological specialists confirmed specifically that the President had indeed suffered an occlusion accompanied by "slight difficulty in speaking . . . [which] has improved over the period of the last 24 hours and is now manifested only by a hesitancy in saying certain difficult words. Reading, writing and reasoning powers are not affected."

That evening the President got up from his bed, ate a light dinner with Mamie from a tray in the family living room. After dinner they watched TV (John Daly, Wyatt Earp and some dial-flipping) before the President turned in at 10 o'clock for the night.

Third Day. The President awakened at 7:40 a.m., got up, showered, shaved himself, breakfasted on half a grapefruit, creamed chipped beef, toast and honey and Sanka. Then he set about bouncing back with a vigor that astonished his staff. In pajamas, beige dressing gown and slippers, he padded about the second floor of the White House, later got dressed in slacks and sweater, settled down to work at his easel on a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II's daughter, Princess Anne. He sought and got his doctor's permission to receive a few official visitors--Nixon, Adams, Hagerty and the King of Morocco. He put in a half-hour's formal work on state papers, signed his name a dozen times, his initials once, attended to items that ranged from the month's NATO Council meeting through next year's federal budget.

At 6:15 p.m. the U.S. public got its first direct word from a high U.S. official who had seen the President. "As a layman," said Vice President Nixon, "I would say he is in excellent spirits ... It was not a case of any inability to formulate ideas. In fact the ideas were ahead of his speech. The only problem that the President was having was a hesitancy in finding a very few words ... I noticed no slurring . . . Quite obviously, he is like a caged lion. He wants to get out there and go to work." By that time Jim Hagerty was back on the job, answering questions, filling in details.

Fourth Day. On Thanksgiving morning, Jim Hagerty was ready with big news. "Let me end this in a hurry," he told newsmen. "The President is going to church today . . ." Just before 11 a.m., the President left the White House, rode a half-mile with the First Lady to attend Thanksgiving service at the National Presbyterian Church. They sat in a fifth-row pew on the left center side, joined in singing Faith of Our Fathers, 0 God, Beneath Thy Guiding Hand and Our Father's God, heard the pastor, the Rev. Edward L. R. Elson, offer a special prayer for the President of the U.S.: "Surround him with healing ministries that in the completeness of health and strength he may fulfill his high calling in the service of mankind through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen." And when the President, bundled up in a heavy blue overcoat, left the church after service, he shrugged off the helping hand of the pastor at his elbow, instead guided Mamie firmly down the steps. He smiled somewhat wistfully as a crowd of about 300 people outside the church broke into polite applause.

At 6 p.m. the President carved and helped eat a 40-lb. Thanksgiving turkey with Mrs. Eisenhower, his son Major John, daughter-in-law Barbara, grandchildren David, 9, Barbara Anne, 8, Susan Elaine, 5, and Mary Jean, almost 2. "The President is in fine spirits," said a new medical bulletin. "His progress continues to be excellent."

Brave Old Team. On the fifth morning, the President and Mamie Eisenhower drove the 80 miles to the family farm at Gettysburg. Time of the trip: 2 hours, 15 minutes. House guest: Dr. Snyder. After lunch in the downstairs dining room and a nap of an hour or so, the President changed into loafing clothes--a big tan Stetson, tan slacks, western-style jacket of spotted tan calf's leather fringed with leather thongs. In a notably brighter mood, he set off in a station wagon to tour his rolling acres, autumn brown beneath a cobalt blue sky, getting out after a while to stroll about the fields and the pens where his herd of sleek black Aberdeen Angus cattle was feeding. Once more Hagerty quoted the doctors to say that the President's progress was "excellent."

On Saturday afternoon the President settled down to watch the Army-Navy football game on television, and treated himself to what has become an annual joke via Western Union. Old Halfback Ike fired off one telegram addressed to Navy Coach Eddie Erdelatz: "Please extend my personal best wishes to each man of your squad as it goes into the big game today. I know that regardless of the outcome, every American will be proud of them and that they will richly deserve a 'well done.' Good luck to you and to your team." Then the President sent another telegram to Army Coach "Red" Blaik: "I have just sent the following telegram to the Navy coach and team [the text of the Navy telegram then followed]. The requirements of neutrality are thus scrupulously observed. But over a span of almost half a century, on the day of 'the game,' I have only one thought and only one song: 'On, Brave Old Army Team.' "

Sunday morning the President went for a surprise drive through downtown Gettysburg. He visited Lower's country store, inspected an old-fashioned slaughterhouse, looked over some hog-cleaning and chicken-cleaning equipment, some machinery for making scrapple. "I knew how to make scrapple as a boy back on the farm," said the President. That afternoon Press Secretary Hagerty put in a postscript that a few days before would have seemed phenomenal: the President expected to return to Washington this week and hoped to attend a meeting of the Cabinet. Summed up Dr. Snyder: "The President's progress continues to be excellent."

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