TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1963)

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Jackie Kennedy and Caroline were the first to see the "Old Chief" as he lurched through the foyer on wavering legs. His unexpected early return from the course, and his obvious ill condition, startled Jackie. With a sinking heart, she questioned Ann. "We'll get the doctor," Jackie said after Ann related what had happened. "You'll do nothing of the kind," Kennedy snapped sternly. "I'll be all right. Don't call any doctors." He then announced that he was going to his bedroom to rest, and went off. Jackie was frantic with worry. She had never seen her father-in-law this way. She held a hurried consultation with her mother-in-law, who had just come from the second-floor bedroom in a near state of collapse. Their decision was immediate — call the doctor! The prognosis: bleak v At 1:25 p.m., the patriarch of the R Kennedy clan was lifted from his bed onto a stretcher and carried to a private ambulance. With a motorcycle es78 cort leading the way, Kennedy was rushed to St. Mary's Hospital. Minutes after his arrival, a chaplain gave him the last rites of the Catholic Church. The diagnosis was obvious — Kennedy had suffered a stroke! A blood clot had become lodged in an artery in the brain, cutting off the blood supply. Rapidly he lost the use of his limbs on the right side — hand, arm, leg and foot. He also failed in his speech. There was no doubt about his condition — grave ! As doctors administered drugs and prepared to x-ray the brain to locate the clot, Jackie, shaken and nearly white with worry, phoned Washington to notify her husband. But the President had not yet arrived at the White House. Jackie spoke to Bobby in his office in the Justice Department. When the President reached his office, Bobby was on the "hot" line — the special phone for cabinet members and other urgent callers. After a tense conversation, the Chief Executive turned to Press Secretary Pierre Salinger grimfaced and said: "Dad's gotten sick." Within the hour, Jackie was back on the wire, this time directly with Jack. She reported what the doctors had told her. Her somber tone must have told him how grave the situation was, however hopeful she might have tried to make the actual words for her husband's own peace of mind. "I'm going," the President told Salinger after speaking with Jackie. With brother Bobby and sister Jean Kennedy Smith, the Chief Executive boarded the big presidential jet, Air Force One, and flew to Florida. In Palm Beach, Kennedy met his wife Jackie and his mother, talked to the doctors, then went to Room 355 to see his critically-ill father. The elder Kennedy was under sedation and asleep. When they left the room, the President, Jackie and his mother were grimfaced and seemed very near tears. It was a shock the President least expected, for he had left his father only hours before in apparently excellent health. Together, Jack, Jackie and Mrs. Kennedy went to the hospital chapel to pray, then home. Even before the next day dawned, members of the tightly-knit Kennedy clan gathered from all parts of the nation— Ted came down from Boston, accompanied by vascular specialist Dr. William T. Foley; Pat Kennedy Lawford flew in from California, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver rushed down by plane from Washington. The speed with which the family responded to the "Old Chief's" bedside was a heart-tingling demonstration that impressed even the cynics. One Presidential aide, known for his icy aloofness to emotion, was impelled to comment: "A homey human drama of this kind could have no greater appeal than it does at this particular time. When a family like the Kennedys rally around the Old Man the way they did, it makes it seem that all is right with our world." If Joe Kennedy could have seen them then, he could not have done less than burst with justifiable pride, for the spirit demonstrated vividly what he had been saying right along: "The real measure of success is to get a family that does as well as mine. I don't know what you can throw on the table that is better than that." The days ahead were critical ones and the Kennedy hearts throbbed with sick fear as they kept vigil around the clock at the patriarch's bedside. A desperate measure On the fifth day, December 24th, Joe Kennedy, critical as he was, took a turn for the worse. He contracted pneumonia. The following day, Christmas, which was to have been a time of joyful celebration for the family, was cast in even deeper shadow by a new and grim development at the hospital. Kennedy's breathing became labored and the physician was forced to perform a tracheotomy— a slit in the throat to admit an air tube that would enable the patient to breathe. The crisis lasted until the 28th. On that day, Joe Kennedy rallied. He sat up in bed for the first time. At last, the immediate danger of the illness was past. There was still a long road ahead, a road paved with painful, tedious rehabilitative training. It began mildly with efforts to sit on the edge of the bed, then in a wheel chair. Later, physicians would re-train his paralyzed limbs by allowing him to stand, to balance himself, then walk. But the therapy proved the most beneficial in that crucial period of convalescence was not furnished by the teams of specialists. The treatment was manifested by a team which had never taken the Hippocratic Oath — Jackie, Caroline and John Jr. In their good and tender hands, Joe Kennedy began a remarkable improvement. Once and sometimes twice a day, Jackie came to her father-in-law's bedside, accompanied most of the time by Caroline, once in a while with little John in her arms. Caroline sang songs for her grandfather or helped push his wheel chair when he was permitted out of bed. At other times, as her mother looked on approvingly, Caroline sat beside her grandfather and carried on a buzzing one-way conversation. She kept the patient informed on such news items as the weather outside, the scuttlebutt along the beach, and the latest doings of her dolls. When Caroline stopped the gab marathon to catch her breath, Jackie picked up the conversational ball and posted Kennedy on -more serious matters of the world. The process in its overall effect was so beneficial that the patient's recovery almost leapfrogged. On January 8th, just twenty days after he had been stricken, Joe Kennedy went home. He had made a remarkable comeback. He had made it with the help of the curative powers that stemmed from the deep and abiding faith of his family— family prayer, family fortitude, family encouragement, family spirit. This was Joe Kennedy's family reacting to a crisis as he had taught them. They were Joe Kennedy-trained and