Better known was his notorious spine and back problems that began while playing football in college. His lower back pain was so severe, he was initially rejected by the both U. During a battle in the Solomon Islands, on Aug.
PT quickly sank and two of the crew members died. Eleven others, including Kennedy, survived, floundering in the Pacific. A few of them were seriously injured. Along with the crew, Kennedy swam several miles to an island, towing one of the injured men by a life-vest strap. He then swam to other islands in search of fresh water and a U.
Eventually, the men were rescued thanks in part to a distress signal Kennedy carved on a coconut shell. The following year, , Kennedy underwent the first of four unsuccessful back surgeries; he had three more procedures between and while he was a U. His spinal surgeries, which included fusions of the lumbar vertebrae and the placement of metal plates, were complicated by poor wound healing, painful abscesses, and osteomyelitis an infection of the bone.
He was so ill at a few points during this period that his Catholic priest administered last rites. Many times, his back was so stiff from pain and arthritis that he could not even bend over to tie his shoes.
Still, Kennedy soldiered on to make his indelible mark on the world — until his assassination. Some physicians have argued that the rigid back brace he wore while sitting in the presidential limousine on Nov.
After the first, non-fatal gunshot struck him, Kennedy was unable to bend down. Receive an email when new articles are posted on. Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on. You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts. We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice slackinc. Back to Healio. Adam J. Related Content. Kennedy constitute one of the best-kept secrets of recent U. Kennedy, like so many of his predecessors, was more intent on winning the presidency than on revealing himself to the public. On one level this secrecy can be taken as another stain on his oft-criticized character, a deception maintained at the potential expense of the citizens he was elected to lead.
Yet there is another way of viewing the silence regarding his health—as the quiet stoicism of a man struggling to endure extraordinary pain and distress and performing his presidential and pre-presidential duties largely undeterred by his physical suffering.
Does this not also speak to his character, but in a more complex way? They described the problem as life-threatening and requiring regular doses of cortisone. The Kennedys publicly denied the allegation. In the fall of , as he and JFK battled in what turned out to be one of the closest presidential elections ever, thieves ransacked the office of Eugene J.
After a sickly childhood, he spent significant periods during his prep-school and college years in the hospital for severe intestinal ailments, infections, and what doctors thought for a time was leukemia.
And it has been known for some time that Kennedy endured terrible back trouble. He wrote his book Profiles in Courage while recovering from back surgery in that almost killed him. Earlier this year a small committee of Kennedy-administration friends and associates agreed to open a collection of his papers for the years — And they add telling detail to a story of lifelong suffering, revealing that many of the various treatments doctors gave Kennedy, starting when he was a boy, did far more harm than good.
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