FDR - Jean Edward Smith [122]
As the days wore on, FDR’s composure deteriorated. His condition was not improving, and he worried that stopping the massages had been a mistake. At the end of August, Dr. Bennett wired Lovett for help: “Atrophy increasing, power lessening, causing patient much anxiety. Attributed by him to discontinuance of massage. Can you recommend anything to keep up his courage?”18
Dr. Lovett replied instantly. “There is nothing that can be added to the treatment,” he wrote. “This is one of the hardest things to make the family understand.”
Drugs I believe are of little or no value.… Bromide for sleeplessness may be useful. Massage will prolong hyperesthesia and tenderness.… The use of hot baths should I think now be considered again, as it is really helpful and will encourage the patient, as he can do so much more under water with his legs.… I should have him sit up in a chair as soon as it can be done without discomfort.19
In mid-September it was decided to take Franklin back to New York, where he could be treated at Presbyterian Hospital by Dr. George Draper, a Harvard classmate who was a protégé of Dr. Lovett. Uncle Fred arranged for a private railroad car to be dispatched to Eastport, and Howe ensured that FDR was smuggled aboard out of range of inquisitive reporters. Thus far the press had reported only that Roosevelt was ill and was recovering. Polio had not been mentioned.
The news of Franklin’s malady first appeared on the front page of The New York Times the morning of September 16:
F.D. ROOSEVELT ILL OF POLIOMYELITIS
BROUGHT ON SPECIAL CAR FROM CAMPOBELLO, BAY OF FUNDY, TO HOSPITAL HERE
The accompanying article quoted Dr. Draper to the effect that although Franklin had lost the use of both legs below the knee, “he definitely will not be crippled. No one need have any fear of any permanent injury from this attack.”20
FDR’s hopes soared. That afternoon he dictated a note to his friend Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of the Times:
While the doctors were unanimous in telling me that the attack was very mild and that I was not going to suffer any permanent effects from it, I had, of course, the usual dark suspicion that they were just saying nice things to make me feel good. But now that I have seen the same statement officially made in The New York Times I feel immensely relieved because I know of course it must be true.21
Wishful thinking. The fact was, FDR was not improving. His fever refused to abate, and his legs continued to atrophy. “There is a marked falling away of the muscle masses on either side of the spine in the lower lumbar region,” Draper warned Dr. Lovett in late September. “The lower extremities present a most depressing picture. There is little motion in the long extensors of the toes of each foot.” Draper believed the psychological factor would be decisive. “He has such courage, such ambition, and yet at the same time such an extraordinarily sensitive emotional mechanism, that it will take all the skill we can muster to lead him successfully to a recognition of what he really faces without utterly crushing him.”22
Slowly Franklin improved. By early October he was well enough for Missy LeHand to be admitted an hour or so each morning to take dictation. Eleanor and Louis Howe kept up with his affairs, and the brief dictation sessions worked wonders on FDR’s morale. But what Roosevelt craved most was personal contact. Close friends were now allowed into his hospital room for brief visits. Interviewed by the journalist Ernest K. Lindley ten years later, many still recalled their visits with awe. “Roosevelt gaily brushed aside every hint of condolence and sent them away more cheerful than when they arrived. None of them has ever heard him utter a complaint or a regret or even acknowledge that he had had so much as a bit of bad luck.”23
FDR saw it as his duty not only to appear in the best of spirits but to bolster the