Pictorial representations Lincoln’s deathbed

[loetar44]

(08-31-2014 10:59 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  [quote='RJNorton' pid='37573' dateline='1409482422']

The scene at Petersen House was terrible, chaotic. It was not at all like the rather serene paintings and sketches. Lincoln's face was discolored, his blackened right eye bulging and distorted. He was making horrible grunting noises at one point. The pillows were blood soaked, and there were bloody towels strewn over the floor. Grown men were sobbing, Tad's mother was wailing and hysterical. For Tad to have seen his powerful, adored father laid low like that might have shattered such a sensitive, immature, high strung kid. Bloody, bruised, and struggling for breath should not be any child's final memory of a beloved parent, especially not one with Tad's emotional temperament.

You are probably right. When AL was brought in his dying room he had a severe head injury, with the symptoms you describe, with blood or clear fluid coming from the head wound. Yes there was panic. Doctors were busy, Mary was hysteric, people were crying. At that moment no good place for a 12 year old boy to be. But remember AL didn’t bleed to death. We know from Dr. Charles Taft, who was in constant attendance at the bedside, that ALL bleeding stopped at 5:30 am. Lincoln died of the swelling, which caused the brain stem to herniate down the spinal canal opening at the base of his skull. That caused that AL was already brain dead at 1:00 am, with the loss of all functions of the brain. We know that from Dr. Stone, who said that AL suddenly had spasmodic contractions of his arms at that moment and that he stopped breathing for a few seconds, and that both pupils became widely dilated. At that moment Lincoln was clinically dead. He was not able to move any more, there were no more reactions on pain, there were no reflexes of the eyes any more, also there were no cough and gag reflexes, etc. Lincoln could no longer be saved (even by medical standards today).After brain death a person is lying peacefully, but his heart is still beating and periodic respiration, with cycles of respiration that are increasingly deeper then shallower with possible increasing periods of apnoea. AL was pronounced death at 7:22 am, when his heart and breathing suddenly stopped. In Lincoln’s days was a beating heart and breathing synonymous with life, nowadays brain stem damage is synonymous with death. When Lincoln’s brain (stem) died, Lincoln was dead. Okay, a lot of people find the concept of brain death difficult to accept, but when my twin brother died almost 25 years ago caused by a sudden hemorrhage of the brain stem, he was pronounced dead almost 5 hours before his heartbeat and breathing stopped. My two boys (12 and 14 then, both with very sensitive minds, but they definitely wanted to see their dying / dead uncle) were in that closing hours with me, to say goodbye. Of course there was not any reaction from my brother. Everybody was in a shock, but both my boys always have said that they treasured that moment of saying farewell and they were thankfull that we did not withheld them from my brother’s death bed. Between AL’s brain death and his pronounced death lay 6½ hours. In that period Tad had (in my opinion) been allowed to see his father , to say farewell. Of course he was a very sensitive boy who had experienced a traumatic loss (Willie), but also he had a free will. I think if they had asked him he definitely would have said yes. Especially for extremely sensitive minds (as I think Tad was extremely sensitive) it’s very important, because to him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is an idol, a father is a god and denying to say farewell to his dying father is a cruelty.