Correct! The answer of course
is John F. Kennedy whose 50th anniversary of his death will be commemorated on
the coming November 22nd.
You find a good collection of
the medical history of JFK on doctorzebra.com. 10 years ago, Robert Dallek
wrote an nice article in ‚The Atlantic Monthly’ about Kennedy’s medical
problems. He was given access to then newly released materials, which included
x-rays and prescription records of one of JFK’s doctors. Not only did the
devastating truth about JFK’s catastrophic health come to the world’s
knowledge. Dallek also revealed the difficulties at that time to conceal JFK’s
health problems. Obvioulsy Nixon had tried to gain access to Kennedy’s medical
history. During the 1960 presidential elections thieves ransacked the office of
JFK’s endocrinologist, who had been treating Kennedy for Addison’s disease, but
they failed to find Kennedy’s records, which were filed under a code name.
Thereafter they tried unsuccessfully to break into the office of Janet Travell,
an internist, who was appointed as personal physician to the president after
JFK’s election. Dr. Janet Travell reported that Kennedy was diagnosed with a
sub-normally functioning thyroid gland as early as 1955. Throughout his
presidency he took testosterone-pills daily. The reason for that is not really
clear. A subthreshold testosterone level might have been a consequence of
Kennedy’s chronic corticosteroid-treatment or a consequence of his APS II, an
condition he was diagnosed with only many years after his death. Possibly he
also tried to increase his weight with testosterone. He was diagnosed with
Addison’s disease in 1947, but it was not related to his thyroid dysfunction at
that time. Now it is almost certain that Kennedy suffered from auto-immune
polyendocrine syndrome type II (APS II), which is a polygenic disorder dfined
as auto-immune adrenocortical failure plus either auto-immune thyroid disease
or type 1 diabetes mellitus. Other associated autoimmune dosrders include:
atrophic gastritis, hypergonadotrophic hypogonadism, and celiac disease.
The 1960 presidential
election campaign left him exhausted. At the press conference after his
election his hands were trembling. It took him two weeks to recover. After the
Bay of Pigs invasion fiasco he was seen deeply depressed, weeping. Weeks after
the invasion he could not sleep.
One of his great and lasting
achievements remains his Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act,
signed 50 years ago on October 31st, 1963. It was the last legislation act he
signed before he died. Already in February 1963 he had adressed a ‚Special
Message to the Congress on Mental Illness and Mental Retardation’. The law was
supposed to support the states in building up a community based treatment for
the people suffering from psychiatric disorders instead of the up to then
custodial confinements in the national institutions. It was therefore also a
sign to de-stigmatize psychiatric disorders.
Meanwhile, about 90 percent
of beds have been cut at state hospitals. But the funds provided to build up an
alternative mental health system were not adequate to the task, so that nowadays
there is no place for the sickest people to turn. Many of them end up homeless.
The three largest mental-health providers in the nation are jails.
Indeed, also in Europe the shorting of
psychiatric beds might lead to a worsening of mental health equally, when an
adequate supply of outpatient treatment possibilities is about to be shortened
as well.
By the way, on pinterest
you’ll find a collection of memories of the visitors of the „JFK: Three Shots
Were Fired“ exhibit with recounts where they were and what they felt the day
that President Kennedy was assassinated: pinterest.com/newseum/remembering-jfk/
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