The Doctor's Report

Dr. Paul Dudley White, 69, is one of the world's most eminent heart specialists. In the pursuit of his notable career he has taken electrocardiograms of circus elephants, and once, in the icy waters off the coast of Alaska, he even recorded the heartbeat of a beluga whale by means of an electrocardiograph wired to a pair of brass-tipped harpoons (TIME, Aug. 25, 1952). Since the whale was small as well as in an understandable state of excitement, Dr. White was not fully satisfied with the result. He still yearns to record the throb of a heart of a tranquil, un-harpooned and bigger whale.

Dr. White is as talkative as he is enterprising. In Denver last week, just before he returned to Boston after two days of consultation with the five other physicians attending President Eisenhower, he presided over a strange press conference. He began the conference by explaining that he was going home "partly because the President's condition is so satisfactory and partly because he has such excellent attention here." He then gave a lengthy dissertation on coronary thrombosis and continued with a curious dialogue in which Press Secretary James Hagerty read the morning medical bulletin sentence by sentence, and Dr. White explained each sentence. Excerpts:

Hagerty (reading from the bulletin):

The President's condition continues to be satisfactory without complications.

Dr. White: I might add that they can come. For many people some of them would have already come, if they had been very, very ill. But they can still come . . . For the first two weeks we keep our fingers crossed.

Hagerty (reading): He had a good bowel movement.

Dr. White: Now I put that in--which I insisted be put in, and I am sure the others agreed to it because it is. I said the country will be very pleased--the country is so bowel-minded anyway--to know that the President had a good movement this morning, and it is important. It is good for the morale of the people for one thing . . . Also he perspired a good deal in the first 36 hours, and so he lost fluid that way. He replaced it. He drank a good deal and has kept up all right. But that is one of the reasons why some patients don't have any bowel movement for several days. So this is an encouraging point.

Hagerty (continuing the bulletin): He enjoyed a breakfast of prunes, oatmeal, soft-boiled egg (singular), toast and milk.

Dr. White: We felt that this was rather important for two reasons. In the first place, he enjoyed it--he wanted it. Secondly, breakfast is often the best meal of many patients who have not eaten through the night, and he hadn't eaten much during the past 24 to 36 hours anyway . . . Some people might say, "Why did he have such a very big-sized breakfast?" It was not very big--pretty soft, easily digested. Why did he have eggs, since eggs now are being deprecated against? We have to supply some fat to the body . . .

Hagerty: The President had a slight fever late yesterday afternoon . .

Question from a reporter: How much?

Hagerty: Let me finish. I will leave that to the doctor. (Reading) ... as is usual in such cases, but his temperature is normal this morning.

Dr. White: We expect, as I have already said, we expect to have fever--a little fever. And this is just according to Hoyle . . . We measured rectally. Until yesterday afternoon about 5, he had no fever above the top normal. But, as we expected yesterday afternoon late, he had a rectal temperature of 101.4. A rectal temperature is 1DEG higher, normally, than a mouth temperature, so that would be the equivalent of 100.4 by mouth. So that was the highest temperature . . .

Question: What are the prospects of the President's complete recovery?

Dr. White: They are reasonably good.

But we can't tell. As I say, we can't tell yet. Each day has to take care of itself, and the first two weeks are important . . .

Question: You were quoted before in Boston . . . saying that it is conceivable that the President could run for a second term. After examining him . . .

Dr. White: I have got so many patients --this is from experience--25 or 30 years ago it was unusual when you had anything like this--recently discovered--only 40 years ago it was first described. We now realize, which was not realized years ago, because nobody had followed up their patients, that many people cannot only live out this condition but can be normally active for many years after. Of course, if a person is older, his expectation of life is not so great . . .

Question: Is your answer yes?

Dr. White: I would say that it is up to him. If he has a good recovery--if he has a good recovery--as we expect--I can't say we expect it yet, because we don't know enough. We have got to follow it a few days longer. If he has a good recovery and is able to resume a normal type of life--I can't answer that question. That is up to . . .

Question: Did you say he would be physically able to do it?

Dr. White: Oh, yes.

This last answer made headlines--and helped publicize a point that Dr. White, a former president of the American Heart Association, has been making for years. The point: heart-attack victims need not spend the rest of their lives as invalids. But when applied to the President of the U.S., Dr. White's answer seemed to hold out the probability that Ike would receive medical advice that he could run again. To correct this impression, Dr. White appeared on a TV show with Dave Garroway. "Asked if he thought it would be possible for the President to serve a second term, he replied: "Many things are possible that may not be advisable ... If I were in his shoes I wouldn't want to run again, having seen the strain."

Later in the day Dr. White granted still another interview--this time to explain his television remarks. "I indicated that I, personally, as Paul D. White, would have no great desire to undertake such a strain as that imposed upon a President of the U.S.A. This remark could be interpreted as meaning that I would give such advice to the President. Far from it. If the President has a good recovery, as he seems to be on the way to establishing, and if he desires to continue in his present career--which could be, of course, to the great benefit of this country and the world at large--I would have no objection whatsoever to his running again. But that remains for the future to decide."

On the television show Dr. White disclosed that he had been talking to President Eisenhower, too. "I talked at some length with the President last Monday," he said, "to tell him just what the situation is as we see it medically. He took all this in and I'm sure he'll be an excellent patient."

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