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| In
1893, soon after entering his second term as president,
Grover Cleveland became aware of a rough spot on the roof
of his mouth. When presidential doctor Major Robert O’Reilly
came by for a social call, the president asked O’Reilly
to take a look at it. O’Reilly discovered a lesion
that he described as “nearly the size of a quarter
with cauliflower granulation.” (Hoang and O’Leary). O’Reilly decided to consult two of the
best surgeons available on the president’s condition.
William W. Keen and Joseph D. Bryant. Bryant has been described
by Hoang and O’Leary as “an However, there were political considerations. A nationwide depression had just gotten underway and in the name of strengthening the economy, the president was leading a movement to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and uphold the gold standard. In August, the president had to address Congress and thus, he had to be able to recover from the surgery’s effects by that time. It was already late June. Furthermore, the president was concerned that reports of his condition could prove even more unsettling, so the surgery would have to be done in secret. Commodore Elias Benedict, a friend of the President, had a yacht, the Oneida, and it was decided to perform the surgery there. The yacht’s saloon was converted into a surgical center. Besides O’Reilly, Bryant and Keen, the surgical team would consist of a dentist, Ferdinand Hasbrouk, Edward Janeway, and J.F. Eidmann. Hasbrouk would be the one who would administer anesthesia to the president, a not-uncommon practice at that time. His presence proved useful at a later point when rumors circulated about the surgery; White House aides said that the president’s only problem was the removal of a tooth and fortunately, a dentist was on board. The surgery was performed on July 1, 1893. The President’s mouth received disinfectant and Hasbrouk administered anesthesia and removed two of the president’s teeth. Cocaine was used as a topical anesthetic as Bryant and Keen, making use of a French made cheek retractor began the surgery. Ronald Spiro describes the work:
The surgery took nearly an hour and a half. However, the President’s speech was affected by the loss of 2.5 inch x 13/16 inch loss of his palate (Carlson and Reddi p. 192). At this point, one Kasson Gibson, a prosthodontist, was brought in and he was able to fashion a vulcanized implant. Cleveland made a steady recovery, although some days after the first surgery, a lesion was removed in a second operation aboard the yacht. Cleveland was able to address Congress that August but he lost much of his old energy, was often irritable and suffered some loss of hearing. The depression would persist for the remainder of his term and by the time he left office in 1897, his party had pretty much disowned him. Hasbrouk had apparently been the source of a report that appeared in the papers soon after the surgery, but the White House was able to cover up the story. It was not until 1917, nine years after Cleveland died, that the public finally learned about the president’s secret surgery. Works used in this piece include: “Oral Cancer and United States Presidents” by Eric R. Carlson and Sanjay P. Reddi. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Vol. 60, pp. 190-193. 2002. “President Grover Cleveland’s
Secret Operation” by Hoat M. Hoang and Patrick O’Leary. The American President by Philip Kunhardt Jr., Philip Kunhardt III and Peter Kunhardt. “Verrucous Carcinoma, Then and Now”
by Ronald H. Spiro. American Journal of Surgery, 1998, pp.
393-397. |
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intelligent
choice, since he had only 3 years earlier written a review
of 250 cases of excision of the superior maxilla.”
The physicians agreed that the president would have to undergo
surgery.