Presidents who hid their poor health from the public

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a five-star general and a war hero before he was president, but in 1955, he was hit by what he originally thought was indigestion. According to OZY, he was on a fishing-and-golfing vacation in the Rocky Mountains, kept getting interrupted by phone calls, and got increasingly angry. Fast forward to 2 a.m., and the president started having chest pains. Morphine was given, and the official word was that he was suffering from a “digestive upset.”

That was at 8 a.m., and over the course of the morning, White House officials continued to blame the president’s illness on indigestion, and repeatedly said that no, it wasn’t serious at all. But when the chest pains didn’t go away, he was eventually diagnosed with an acute myocardial infarction and hospitalized — 12 hours after the first signs there was a problem.

Eisenhower spent the next six weeks in the hospital, and during that time, his staff changed tack and decided that honesty was the best policy. The public was given up-to-the-minute information on how the president was doing, and yes, that even included the announcement of his bowel movements. And it worked. The economy — which had taken a nosedive after the announcement of his heart attack — recovered, and Eisenhower went on to have another surgery, then completely trounce Adlai Stevenson in the next election.