Chapter 02
Roosevelt’s Little Understanding of the People’s Sufferings

II. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Polio”

At the age of 28, Franklin D. Roosevelt entered politics as a member of the Democratic Party — unlike his distant cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, who was a Republican. By 31, he had become Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and his political career seemed to be progressing smoothly. However, at age 39, he was stricken with poliomyelitis (commonly known as polio), a disease that left him at risk of permanent disability.

Despite his physical disability, Franklin D. Roosevelt never gave up his desire for power. Through perseverance, he was elected Governor of New York at the age of 47. From there, the ambitious Roosevelt continued his march toward the presidency.

In her book Pox: Genius, Madness, And The Mysteries Of Syphilis, Deborah Hayden notes that during Roosevelt’s first presidential campaign, there were already rumors suggesting he had syphilis — at a time when he had not yet contracted polio. Later, after his death, his family refused an autopsy, which led to renewed speculation about the ‘syphilis rumors.” But that is another story.

The cause of Roosevelt’s lower-body paralysis was long believed to be poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio. The disease gets its name from its effect on the central nervous system — specifically the inflammation and degeneration of the brain’s gray matter and the spinal cord.

Let us turn to the historical accounts of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s illness:

On August 10, 1921, Roosevelt was vacationing with his family on Campobello Island. On their way home, the children noticed a thin column of smoke rising from a small island nearby. As they all looked over, the smoke began to spread. “A forest fire!” Roosevelt said.

After more than two hours of battling the fire, it was finally extinguished. The whole family was drenched in sweat and covered in soot. Overheated, Roosevelt jumped into the water for a swim — but the Bay of Fundy was ice cold, and the chill seemed to pierce straight into his internal organs. He quickly got out, calling to his children as he ran back to the house.

He began to feel muscle soreness in his legs, chills ran through his body, and his teeth chattered uncontrollably. That night, he developed a high fever and temporarily lost control over his bodily functions. The local physician, Dr. Bennett, diagnosed it as a severe cold. However, Roosevelt’s condition rapidly deteriorated, leaving the doctor puzzled. Intense pain spread to his back and legs, and before long, he lost all muscle function below the chest.

By the third day, the pain and numbness had spread to Roosevelt’s shoulders, arms, and even his fingers. Louis Howe, alarmed by the situation, summoned the renowned diagnostic specialist Dr. William W. Keen from a vacation resort in Maine.

At first, Dr. Keen suggested it might be a form of “hysterical paralysis,” but he later concluded it was likely poliomyelitis — a disease for which there was no cure at the time. For the rest of his life, Roosevelt refused to fully accept this diagnosis, even though he knew deep down exactly what it was.

In 2003, a peer-reviewed medical study concluded that the paralytic illness Franklin D. Roosevelt suffered from was actually Guillain-Barré Syndrome, not poliomyelitis.

Guillain-Barré Syndrome is a rare neurological disorder. It is named after French neurologists Georges Guillain and Jean Alexandre Barré, who, along with Dr. André Strohl, first described the condition in 1916. Strohl’s name was omitted from the eponym, likely because he was a pathologist rather than a neurologist, and was sidelined by the other two physicians.

The pathogenesis of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) primarily involves the body’s immune system attacking its own peripheral nerves after an infection. The disease typically begins following an infection and enters a plateau phase within a few weeks, after which gradual recovery begins. Some patients recover fully, while others may be left with permanent disability, and in severe cases, complications such as respiratory muscle involvement can lead to death.

Diagnosis today relies mainly on clinical presentation, as well as tests like cerebrospinal fluid analysis and electromyography. A commonly used diagnostic framework is the Brighton criteria. Treatment is largely supportive, but early intervention with IVIg (intravenous immunoglobulin) or, in severe cases, plasma exchange (plasmapheresis) can help. Had Roosevelt lived in our time, he might have been able to walk again—or at the very least, he would have known that he did not suffer from poliomyelitis.

Guillain-Barré Syndrome typically presents as ascending, relatively symmetrical flaccid weakness. Based on patient history and clinical findings, it can usually be distinguished early on from other conditions that cause similar symptoms, such as myasthenia gravis, botulism, tick paralysis, West Nile virus infection, and metabolic neuropathies — and outside the United States, also from poliomyelitis.