Brain hemorrhage called paralytic stroke by layman
Ailment may result from exertion or from coughing or sneezing
By Jane Stafford, Science Service medical writer
WASHINGTON – Brain hemorrhage, from which President Roosevelt died, is the commonest of what physicians call “cerebral accidents.” The layman calls it a stroke or apoplexy or a paralytic stroke.
High blood pressure and blood vessel disease are the chief causes of the condition. The exact mechanism by which conditions occur, such as those leading to death from brain hemorrhage or from coronary artery trouble, is not known.
These blood vessels are where the strain comes, and undoubtedly many physicians, knowing the strain Mr. Roosevelt had been under, had been expecting that blood vessels of either heart or brain would give way.
The immediate cause of brain hemorrhage is a rapid rise in blood pressure. This may result from severe muscular exertion or from coughing or sneezing. The immediate sequel of the hemorrhage into the brain is the apoplectic seizure.
Most patients are said to have premonitory symptoms, as dizziness or a sense of pressure in the head. The seizure may, however, occur suddenly in a person in apparently perfect health.
Although paralysis often follows hemorrhage, there is no evidence that infantile paralysis has any connection with the kind following apoplectic seizure. Indirectly it might add some strain through the burden of getting about under physical handicap.
Death shocks Adm. McIntire
Physician planned weekend visit
By Ned Brooks, Scripps-Howard staff writer
WASHINGTON – Among all the White House attaches, the man most profoundly shocked by President Roosevelt’s death was Vice Adm. Ross T. McIntire, the Navy physician who had watched over the executive’s health for 12 years.
So confident was Adm. McIntire of the executive’s wellbeing that he did not consider it necessary to be at Mr. Roosevelt’s side at the Warm Springs “Little White House.” He had intended to join the presidential part, over the weekend, play golf and return Monday with the President.
‘No indication of trouble’
In recent months, while rumors about Mr. Roosevelt’s health were thick in Washington, Adm. McIntire had maintained steadfastly that there was no cause for concern. Today he reiterated this conviction:
Everything I have ever said about the President’s health was factual. As late as yesterday morning, there was no indication of trouble. The President was carrying on routinely as he had always done at Warm Springs.
Adm. McIntire said the “only complaint” he had found about Mr. Roosevelt’s condition was his loss of weight. This, he said, offered no warning of the cerebral attack which resulted in the President’s death.
Tells of phone call
A half-hour after the White House flag had been lowered to half-staff, Adm. McIntire received newsmen in Secretary Stephen T. Early’s office. Grief and remorse were evident beneath his composure.
He told his story simply – how a telephone call at 3:05 p.m. had brought the news of Mr. Roosevelt’s fainting, how he had sent Dr. James Paullin of Atlanta hurrying to the President’s bedside, how a second conversation had been broken off suddenly and how, five minutes later, he got the final message: “The President has died; the end came very suddenly.”