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Article ID: CBB000930690

President Wilson's Brain Trust: Woodrow Wilson, Francis X. Dercum, and American Neurology (2009)

Jacobson, Ryan D. (Author)

Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Volume: 18
Pages: 59--75

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Neurology Therapeutic practice; therapy; treatment Cardiovascular disease Neurosciences 20th century, early United States Dercum, Francis Xavier

On October 2, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke that paralyzed the left half of his body. Wilson's stroke forced the American public to confront stroke, and laypeople came to identify stroke as a nervous disorder, rather than a condition rooted solely in psychological phenomena. His medical care was overseen by Cary Grayson, his personal internist, and Francis X. Dercum, a remarkably accomplished neurologist from Philadelphia. Dercum was very involved in the treatment of the President, from the day of the stroke until years later. While the medical records have been destroyed, some basic facts of Wilson's treatment and rehabilitation can be inferred from the literature. Although Woodrow Wilson was an exceptional patient, his care, albeit administered by some of the most famous physicians of the era, was typical of the time. Therefore, this paper's approach to Wilson's 1919 stroke contextualizes the President's case into the larger scheme of early twentieth-century neurology. Keywords: Woodrow Wilson; American presidents; Francis X. Dercum; Cary Grayson; stroke; apoplexy; clinical neurology

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