In this book Dr. Lomazow describes his search for the truth about the health of Franklin Roosevelt, hidden from the public by a conspiracy of his family, friends, supporters, doctors, and journalists throughout his life, and for decades afterwards.
FDR, an only child, born in 1882 to two fabulously wealthy parents, had a privileged education. Wealthy friends in high places, his skill in choosing outstanding campaign managers, and his own oratorial skills got him elected to the Senate in 1910 and re-elected in 1912. In 1919 he watched and learned as Woodrow Wilson’s stroke and cognitive impairment were not revealed to the public.
In 1921 Senator FDR developed severe Poliomyelitis which was concealed from the media and the public. His inability to walk was denied and photography was strictly controlled, but after three years he could, with leg braces and crutches, walk a few paces to a podium, and he re-entered politics. Lomazow has also found evidence of repeated surgery for a probable melanoma above his left eye, with radiotherapy and blood transfusions on board Astor’s yacht, “during a fishing trip” in 1934. In 1940 he had prostate cancer (confirmed by Eleanor), with probable metastatic disease later, and hypertension and heart disease by 1942. The hiding of his paralysis from the polio, and all his other numerous illnesses, was regarded as critical in his election to the presidency and in enabling him to keep getting re-elected. Astonishingly the media co-operated, never revealing that he had to be carried up stairs in his wheelchair, and his doctors continued to lie about his health. A false name was used for much of his medical and pathology records, many of which were destroyed.
By 1943 he was declining cognitively, and suffering either repeated small strokes or epileptic seizures or both, all concealed from the public. In 1945 at the Yalta conference, he was unable to play any significant part in the proceedings and did not read any of the papers Winston Churchill gave him. He believed that Stalin was essential to the formation of the United Nations, and any appeasement was acceptable to achieve this aim, including abandoning Poland and giving Russia the power of the veto.
Lomazow has revealed the extraordinary scale of this medical coverup and leaves us to ponder the interesting questions that arise. Does the public, in a democracy, have a right to knowledge of their leader’s health or should a leader preserve a right to privacy, when so much hinges on their competence? Is there a difference between a doctor protecting a patient’s privacy, and lying by falsifying, or even destroying, medical records?
Was FDR’s lifelong concealment of his health issues the action of someone pursuing his ambition, or was he motivated by a belief that only he could deliver what people needed – both for the New Deal in 1932, and to prepare the country in the late 1930s for the coming war? Lomazow has uncovered issues that are as relevant now as they were in FDR’s lifetime.
– Emeritus Professor Giles Stevenson, British Columbia, Canada