John Kennedy : doctors trace his medical history

AP/SIPA

Published the 12.07.2017 at 09.40 am

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The most beautiful tribute to her memory comes, without a doubt, his own brother. The words are signed by Robert F. Kennedy, a few days after the assassination of his brother, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. “Half of the days he spent on this earth have been accompanied by an intense pain… I’ve never heard him complain. “

These words summarize well the pugnacity with which the 35th president of the United States has pursued his political career, despite chronic back pain and disabling. In fact, JFK did not let the image of a president with a disability. Quite to the contrary.

More than 50 years after his death, the energy and the smile summarize always the mandate of the youngest elected head of the White House. A real tour-de-force, in view of his medical records. While his political career was flourishing, the man has just crossed an obstacle course. His back, in particular, has made him suffer many setbacks.

Imaging examinations and testimonies in support, two neurosurgeons come back, in the Journal of Neurosurgery : Spine, on the manner in which the back pain has punctuated the policy of John F. Kennedy.

A heroism poorly rewarded

From an early age, JFK is undergoing a course of medical chaotic. Over the years, he received extreme unction four times. If the Addison’s disease, which is diagnosed in 1947, the turmoil, his back is at the heart of his misadventures.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born with a joint in lumbo-sacral unstable, according to the neurosurgeons who sign this study. It is not immediately expressed by a degeneration that is visible on the radios. But the pain is not expected.

In 1937, a student at the university of Harvard, the young Kennedy is injured during a game of american football. The scars prevent to integrate the army a few years later. Thanks to the influence of his father, the young man manages to get a job on a PT boat.

In the middle of the Second world War, the vessel of JFK is poured. The man rescues a crew member seriously injured, helping them to swim for five hours. The heroism earned him universal recognition. But the state of his back deteriorates rapidly after this act of bravery.