Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: Grover Cleveland's Secret Surgery
When a President has a serious health problem and requires surgery, past practice has sometimes been to keep news of that surgery secret for fear that news of the disruption in government might have an adverse affect on the stock market. Such was the case in 1893 when, in the middle of the debate about repeal of silver coinage, President Grover Cleveland had secret surgery to remove a cancerous growth on the inside of his mouth.
Cleveland had sought the advice of the White House doctor, Dr. R. M. O'Reilly, about soreness on the roof of his mouth and a crater-like edge ulcer with a granulated surface on the left side of Cleveland's palate. Samples of the tumor were sent to the army medical museum, but the name of the patient was not revealed. The diagnosis was not a malignant cancer, but several doctors have stated, after Cleveland's death that the tumor was a carcinoma.In the 1980s, analysis of the specimen finally confirmed the tumor to be verrucous carcinoma, a form of cancer.
Because of the financial depression of the country at the time, Cleveland decided to have surgery performed in secrecy to avoid further market panic. Bank failures, a railroad bubble, and a run on the gold supply had ushered in a serious economic depression called the Panic of 1893 that had swept the country. These factors contributed to the decision to have the surgery performed in secret.
The surgery took place on July 1, 1893, to give Cleveland time to make a full recovery in time for the upcoming Congressional session. Under the guise of a vacation cruise, Cleveland and his surgeon, Dr. Joseph Bryant, left for New York. The surgeons operated aboard the yacht Oneida as it sailed off Long Island. The surgery was conducted through the president's mouth, to avoid any scars or other signs of surgery. Cleveland was anesthetized with nitrous oxide and ether, and the surgeons successfully removed parts of his upper left jaw and hard palate. The size of the tumor and the extent of the operation left Cleveland's mouth disfigured. Another surgery was required for an orthodontist to fit Cleveland with a hard rubber prosthesis that corrected his speech and restored his appearance.
A cover story about the removal of two bad teeth kept the suspicious press placated. Even when a newspaper story appeared giving details of the actual operation, the participating surgeons discounted the severity of what transpired during Cleveland's vacation. It wasn't until 1917 that one of the surgeons present on the Oneida, Dr. William W. Keen, wrote an article detailing the operation.
The story of this episode is told more fully in Matthew Alego's 2011 book The President is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth.
Cleveland had sought the advice of the White House doctor, Dr. R. M. O'Reilly, about soreness on the roof of his mouth and a crater-like edge ulcer with a granulated surface on the left side of Cleveland's palate. Samples of the tumor were sent to the army medical museum, but the name of the patient was not revealed. The diagnosis was not a malignant cancer, but several doctors have stated, after Cleveland's death that the tumor was a carcinoma.In the 1980s, analysis of the specimen finally confirmed the tumor to be verrucous carcinoma, a form of cancer.
Because of the financial depression of the country at the time, Cleveland decided to have surgery performed in secrecy to avoid further market panic. Bank failures, a railroad bubble, and a run on the gold supply had ushered in a serious economic depression called the Panic of 1893 that had swept the country. These factors contributed to the decision to have the surgery performed in secret.
The surgery took place on July 1, 1893, to give Cleveland time to make a full recovery in time for the upcoming Congressional session. Under the guise of a vacation cruise, Cleveland and his surgeon, Dr. Joseph Bryant, left for New York. The surgeons operated aboard the yacht Oneida as it sailed off Long Island. The surgery was conducted through the president's mouth, to avoid any scars or other signs of surgery. Cleveland was anesthetized with nitrous oxide and ether, and the surgeons successfully removed parts of his upper left jaw and hard palate. The size of the tumor and the extent of the operation left Cleveland's mouth disfigured. Another surgery was required for an orthodontist to fit Cleveland with a hard rubber prosthesis that corrected his speech and restored his appearance.
A cover story about the removal of two bad teeth kept the suspicious press placated. Even when a newspaper story appeared giving details of the actual operation, the participating surgeons discounted the severity of what transpired during Cleveland's vacation. It wasn't until 1917 that one of the surgeons present on the Oneida, Dr. William W. Keen, wrote an article detailing the operation.
The story of this episode is told more fully in Matthew Alego's 2011 book The President is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth.