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Since the office was established in 1789, 45 persons have served as president of the United States.[a] Of these, eight have died in office:[1] four were assassinated, and four died of natural causes. In each of these instances, the vice president has succeeded to the presidency.

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Wilson’s most severe disabilities stemmed from a major stroke in 1919, which significantly disrupted his presidency and left him physically and emotionally impaired for the rest of his life.

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Wilson won the United States presidential election of 1912 and seemed hale and hearty during his first few months in office. In April 1913, however, his left arm became disabled in what he described at the time (in a letter to a friend, Mary Allen Hulbert) as neuritis, “as nasty a beast as ever attacked poor human flesh.” He declined to call it a stroke.

In September 1919, while touring the country in an attempt to generate public support for the United States’ entry into the League of Nations, Wilson collapsed in Pueblo, Colorado. Soon afterward he suffered a massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed on his left side. His intellectual capacity was not affected, but his emotional balance and judgment were badly impaired. Wilson’s wife, Edith, controlled access to him, made decisions by default, and engineered a cover-up of his condition, which included misleadingly optimistic reports from his doctors.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:


You would rather a free-for-all? Or an unelected influence puppeteer a disabled President, as happened with Woodrow Wilson after his stroke?

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