Roosevelt’s Health
In addition to asthma TR suffered from a variety of ailments over his lifetime. His heart became a major issue. Dr. Dudley Sergeant gave TR his last physical exam at Harvard. Sergeant told Roosevelt to live a sedentary life. He warned TR if he ran up the stairs he could keel over after reaching the top. Sergeant was head of physical training at Harvard.
Cowboys out west said around the campfire they could see Roosevelt gnawing on his heart medicine. In Oyster Bay TR would get his prescriptions filled at Snouder’s Drug Store. He had a standing order for nitroglycerin to treat his heart problems.
- Malaria - TR comes down with malaria in the Brazilian rain forest.
- Unconsciousness – A few episodes from falling off his horse playing polo
- Bleeding – He often had instances of bleeding. Owen Wister recalled he cut himself shaving and they had a hard time stopping the bleeding.
- Exhaustion - In 1912 reports reached the Bull Moose headquarters that he was losing his grip. He was repeating himself disastrously. He was forced to cancel two addresses because of his throat. The disability was bad enough to raise the possibility he may not be able to continue speaking.
- Snored – There is a story that while in the hospital recovering from the 1912 assassination attempt Roosevelt reportedly snored so loudly there were complaints filed by almost every patient in the wing where he was recuperating.
- Sleeping - He never slept during the day and bedtime was set at 10:30…but like a kid he often stayed up later. Staff all remember hearing Edith from upstairs “The-o-dore time for bed.”
- Infections - In 1918, as a result of a throat infection, Roosevelt developed an acute inner ear infection, inflammatory rheumatism and an abscess of his thigh." An infection picked up in South America still poisoned his blood. In the summer of 1918, he was close to the end of his life. Both eardrums were pierced, and surgery was performed on his thigh. He would be in the hospital from November 11th, 1918, until Christmas 1918.
