On December 12, 1799, it was a cold winter, and the snow was falling and the next one did not stop. By this time, Washington had retired from politics, resigned from the presidency, and left the mountains idle. On this day, Washington put on a trench coat, was enthusiastic, rode in the wind and snow, and flew to his estate.
However, what I didn't expect was that soon a common cold and fever that looked like an ordinary ended the life of this president who shook the ancient world, what happened?
Yiyan sealed his throat and asked for Washington's life
When he arrived at the manor, Washington was already soaked in clothes, but he was still in good spirits and spent five hours at the manor. The next day, Washington suffered from a cold "cold" and developed symptoms such as sore throat and hoarseness. In the early morning of the third day, Washington began to have a fever, chills, trembling all over his body, panting heavily, etc., and began to breathe poorly and chest tightness.
Gather the nation's top medical greats, either on horseback or by car, to private estates in Washington. By the time they arrived, Washington had developed a severe throat obstruction, and his face was so purple that he could barely speak.
The big names had a lively and lengthy discussion about Washington's disease, each expressing their own opinions, and the discussion was also very much. The result of the discussion was nothing more than two opinions: one advocated immediate tracheostomy to ventilate the lungs and open up another pathway; One faction believes that tracheostomy has a high mortality rate and high risk, and that how can the great Mr. President perform such an operation is too rash, and conservative treatment of bloodletting should be adopted.
Washington was breathing harder and harder as they discussed it. Lawmakers urged the medical greats to make decisions over and over again. In the end, the tracheostomy faction saw that the president was really ill and afraid of taking risks, so they compromised, and the bloodletting opinion prevailed.
In fact, at that time, anesthetics, antibiotics, hormones, etc., had not yet been invented, and the most popular and used treatment was bloodletting therapy, which was considered to be a universal treatment. Two of America's top medical leaders immediately treated the president with bloodletting.
Gurgling blood flowed out of Washington's veins, filled with bloodletting instruments, and put 1,000 milliliters, and Washington passed away in extreme pain in the process of bloodletting.
After Washington's death, two bloodletting doctors inevitably became the "culprits", and everyone believed that the two doctors bleeded to cause the president's death, especially those who advocated tracheostomy, and the attacks were particularly fierce. It was not until 1838 that the first attention was paid to "epiglottitis".
David Morens, a professor at the National Institutes of Health and a famous contemporary epidemiologist who has done in-depth research on the cause of death in Washington. He published his views in the New England Journal of Medicine, sharing Henry Kx's views on when and why Washington died. They believe that although Washington is far away from his death now, the most credible medical research suggests that he suffered from acute epiglottitis, which caused a blockage of the trachea and eventually suffocated to death.
Typical symptoms of epiglottitis are rapid onset, high fever, sore and swollen throat, difficulty swallowing, hoarseness, or even inability to speak. Due to the patient's windpipe obstruction, breathing difficulties, resulting in restlessness, according to data, Washington in the last days of life, manifested in this pathology.
Henrix said: "At the time, it was indeed a very terrible disease, the epiglottis and uvula were swollen more than 10 times more than normal, basically blocking the patient's esophagus and trachea, unable to breathe and eat at all. In fact, in 1838, when studying the cause of death in Washington, the cause of death in Washington was the first to be identified as the cause of death in Washington, but doctors continued to argue about it, in part because Washington's symptoms were similar to those of other common diseases.
Henrix cautioned: "We cannot fail to understand the fact that inflammation was not discovered to be a disease caused by bacteria until 1840, but this discovery was not generally recognized by the medical community until 1870." Therefore, it is normal to identify a specific disease to provoke a lot of debate. ”
In the study, it was found that although the streptococcus that could have killed him had entered Washington's body, it took less than 48 hours from his illness to his death.
On December 12, 1799, he planned to take a look at his beloved farm. That day, it was windy and snowy, and Washington spent five hours outside, and when he entered the house for dinner, his head was covered in snow and his clothes were soaked. The next morning, he was still up early, but he was already showing signs of a cold, his throat was a little hoarse, and his family advised him not to go out, but he insisted on going around the forest farm and marking the trees he had decided to cut down.
On Friday night, Washington's voice was already very hoarse, but he still read poetry aloud to his beloved wife, Martha, with passion. After dinner, Martha went to care for his grandchildren, and Washington discussed the politics of the country with his Harvard-graded secretary, Tobias Lear, at a time when the president still showed the amiability and patience of an old man despite the sore throat.
Lear followed Washington for a long time, taking care of him like the president's son. When he discovered the president's illness, he persuaded him to let the doctor diagnose it, but Washington, as usual, stubbornly believed that it was a minor illness and did not need to be mobilized, bothering the doctor and his family.
Washington left in pain
The attentive Lil still found that the president was trying to hide the pain and anxiety caused by the illness. On Saturday, Washington developed a high fever, his voice was extremely hoarse and his breathing was heavy, and the family rushed to the doctor. The first to arrive was James Craik, a good friend of Washington's. In order to accurately diagnose and treat, he also invited Dr. Gustavus Brown, the most respected doctor in Maryland, and because he was worried that Brown would not arrive in time, he also invited the young and promising doctor Elisha Karen Dick.
Before the doctor arrived, Washington ordered the butler to bleed him, because he had seen his serfs get better automatically after bleeding, so he decided to follow suit. When Crak arrived, he also underwent bloodletting, and then mixed mucus with molasses, vinegar and butter to make the president rinse his throat, which unfortunately caused his throat to swell violently and almost suffocate to death.
At about 10 a.m. on December 14, 1799, he gave Washington two more bloodletting treatments, and at the same time he had him rinse his throat with tea made of Salvia Chiba mixed with vinegar, and when he threw his head back, he suffered a severe choking, this time almost unable to spit out the liquid, making his face purple. By this time, Washington's throat was swollen very badly, but he was still strong enough to endure the pain, got up and dressed, and paced around the room, trying to find a good position to breathe. Later, when he was tired of walking, he sat in a chair for two hours and rested until he couldn't hold on and then went back to bed.
Later, when Washington could swallow a little, doctors told him to take tartar to control vomiting and calomel to dissolve pus in his throat, but by this time, "the president found himself breathing more and more difficult." Throughout the treatment, doctors performed 4 bloodletting sessions on him, which is equivalent to a third of his total blood. Lear later wrote: "Throughout the afternoon, he was in pain and exhausted. When Liel asked him to change his position, he said in a weak voice: "I'm so worried, I'm dragging you down too much." ”
In the evening, when Washington felt that his life had come to an end, he asked his wife Martha to bring two suicide notes, and after reading them, he asked her to burn one of them. He then asked Lil to sort out his newly written letters and articles on military matters and asked him to arrange for them to be stored.
At 5 p.m., he got up from his bed and sat back in his chair, panting hard, and after a while, he felt tired and went back to bed and lay down, his condition rapidly deteriorating. Perhaps he had lost confidence in the doctors, or perhaps he was really tired of the disease, and he asked the doctors to let him quiet for a while. At 10 o'clock in the evening, the first president in American history passed away.
It seems like a common cold, why is it so dangerous
The epiglottis is a piece of cartilage covered with a mucous membrane like a small hat, located behind the base of the tongue, at the "fork in the mouth" of the trachea and esophagus. Epiglottis plays a significant role at this "fork in the road". This "fork in the road" is the only way for people to swallow food and inhale air.
When swallowing food, the epiglottis sags, cover the trachea and avoid swallowing food into the trachea; When air is inhaled, the epiglottis opens upwards, allowing air to enter the trachea smoothly and be inhaled into the lungs. Let food and gas go their separate ways, in an orderly manner and without interfering with each other.
If the epiglottis is inflamed, it will not only cause symptoms such as sore throat and fever, but also affect the vocal cords in front, resulting in unclear pronunciation, low voice, hoarseness, and even loss of voice.
Sometimes, it can reflexively cause earache. The most frightening thing is that the submucosal tissue of the epiglottis is relaxed, and it is especially easy to cause edema after inflammation.
Highly swollen epiglottis has limited mobility and covers the glottis downward, obstructing the trachea and esophagus, causing dysphagia, drooling, stridor, dyspnea, and even death by suffocation.
Acute epiglottitis is one of the acute and severe diseases of otolaryngology, which can occur in children and adults, more men than women, and more common in spring and autumn. If the disease is not diagnosed and treated in time, it is easy to obstruct the upper airway and die of asphyxiation.
Because the symptoms are similar to colds and pharyngitis, many people do not do things and miss the best time for treatment, but when the condition gradually worsens, it may eventually lead to death by suffocation.
Therefore, once the following symptoms appear, it is important to be alert to acute epiglottitis!
Patients usually have a sudden onset after drinking, eating together, or being tired or cold. Often first there is cold, fatigue or fever, sometimes fever can reach more than 39 °C. Most patients fall asleep normally and wake up in the middle of the night with a sudden severe sore throat or poor breathing.
The disease often progresses rapidly, the patient has severe sore throat, which is aggravated when swallowing, even saliva is difficult to swallow, and the voice is slurred due to swelling of the epiglottis, as if it is contained in the mouth. When the epiglottis is severely swollen, the glottis becomes smaller, and the sticky sputum is blocked, inspiratory dyspnea will occur, and in severe cases, asphyxia may occur.
Clinically, due to the doctor's unclear diagnosis, or some patients think that they have a cold and do not go to the doctor, the phenomenon of delayed treatment is very common, and individual patients will die of suffocation due to too late rescue.
Therefore, it is recommended that for those patients with severe laryngeal pain and dysphagia symptoms are obvious, but the examination of the pharynx can not be found in acute inflammation and special lesions, acute epiglottitis should be considered, and the condition should not be delayed due to subjective assumptions or attempts to save trouble, and only one laryngoscopy can confirm the diagnosis.
"Sore throat" in the eyes of most people is nothing more than considering upper respiratory tract infections, acute tonsillitis, acute pharyngitis, etc., the use of anti-inflammatory drugs can be, but there is a "sore throat" can not be ignored, it is - acute epiglottitis.
It is menacing, the incidence is not low, often mistaken for a common cold, fever, often can not be given enough attention, so that delay treatment, dyspnea, suffocation and other critical symptoms. Once it occurs, in just a few minutes, it can suffocate people!
Therefore, friendly reminder to everyone, if there is severe laryngeal pain and difficulty swallowing, do not avoid medical treatment, please go to the otolaryngology department of the hospital in time for early diagnosis, early detection, early treatment.
(Source: Changxiao Health, History River WeChat public account)