Health Leader

James Garfield: An assasin's bullet leads to a medical fate worse than death

STORY BY

Shannon Rasp

American presidential history is full of surprising medical facts. Each week until the 2008 election, HealthLeader will focus on the medical histories of a variety of presidents. This week, we learn more about James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States.

Sometimes a person’s death becomes one of the most interesting parts of their life. Such is the sad case of James Garfield, shot twice by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881, just four months after taking office.

Guiteau had been lining up outside the White House for months demanding an ambassadorship, first to Vienna and then Paris, despite being completely unqualified for the posts and utterly unknown to the president. He created so many scenes that, on May 14, 1881, Secretary of State James Blaine personally told him to leave and never return.

Guiteau bought a revolver and began stalking the president, almost shooting him at the Sixth Street railway station while Garfield bid his wife goodbye as she left for a vacation at the New Jersey seashore. He decided not to shoot the president then since Mrs. Garfield was ill at the time and he “didn’t want to upset her.”

At 9:30 on the morning of July 2, Garfield, accompanied by two of his sons as well as Blaine and Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln, walked through the railway station on his way to his alma mater, Williams College, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech. After Garfield passed Guiteau, the assassin stepped forward and shot the president once in the back and grazed his arm with another bullet.

The bullet that lodged in Garfield’s spine could not be found, although scientists today think that the bullet was near his lung. Alexander Graham Bell even devised a metal detector specifically for the purpose of finding the bullet, but the metal bed frame on which Garfield was lying made the instrument malfunction.

Medical ‘help’ probably killed him

Most historians and medical experts now agree that Garfield probably would have survived his wounds without the well-meaning interference of his doctors, who inserted unsterilized instruments and even their unwashed fingers into the wound searching for the bullet – one doctor even punctured the president’s liver during a search.

Garfield’s original wound was 3.5 inches long, but the futile hunts for the bullet caused the wound track to lengthen to 20 inches and begin oozing pus. The infection led to blood poisoning, which weakened his heart. Following blood poisoning and bronchial pneumonia, President Garfield died of either a massive heart attack or a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm Sept. 19, 1881, at age 49.

Interestingly, Guiteau argued during his trial that he wasn’t responsible for the president’s death. While he admitted firing the bullet into Garfield’s spine, he pointed out that the wound itself didn’t kill him. Instead, he said, the doctors caused their patient’s death with their poking and prodding of the wound. The jury was unimpressed with this defense, and Guiteau was hanged on June 30, 1882.

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Last Updated: 9-10-2008

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Packing Bag Lunches Safely

If you pack lunches for your child to take to school, be careful that you do not accidentally expose them to foodborne illness.

Bagged lunches, especially those containing perishable foods, need to be packed and handled properly in order to keep the food safe. In general, perishable foods should not be left at room temperature for more than two hours. If left out too long, the temperature of the food can enter the danger zone where bacteria grow most rapidly, which is between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Below are some tips to help families pack bagged lunches safely:

Pack foods that are nonperishable and won't require refrigeration.
If you do pack perishable foods such as luncheon meats or prepackaged cheese and crackers, include a frozen gel pack or a frozen juice carton with the food in an insulated lunch bag or box.
Pack only the amount of perishable food that your child can eat at lunch.
Preparing lunches the night before and storing them in the refrigerator until you pack your child's lunchbox in the morning can help keep food cold longer the next day.
Don't reuse packaging materials such as paper or plastic bags, aluminum foil, etc. as they can contaminate other foods and cause foodborne illness. Have your child discard all used food packaging and paper bags after lunch.

Before eating lunch or snacks at school, make sure your child washes his or her hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. If your child's school does not have a handwashing program in place, encourage them to adopt a such a program, as handwashing is one of the best ways kids and parents can protect health and stop the spread of germs.