Plan to revive America's first president

After his presidential term ended in March 1797, George Washington returned to his hometown in Virginia to enjoy his country estate .

Two years later, he fell ill and died. In mourning for America's first president, a doctor proposed a method to help him revive, but things did not go well.

Bold ideas fail

Portrait of George Washington painted two years before his death (left) and physician William Thornton.

On the morning of December 15, 1799, Dr. William Thornton ' raced with death' across the frozen Virginia countryside in hopes of saving a man's life. If his horse could rush to the doorstep of George Washington's house before the former president suddenly died of a viral infection, this doctor believed he could help his close friend escape death.

However, when he arrived and entered the living room of the house at the Mount Vernon estate , Thornton saw everyone grieving over Washington's stiff body. The deceased's family told Thornton that he was too late to prevent the former president's death. However, the doctor shocked everyone present when he announced that he could bring Washington back to life.

Born in the British West Indies in 1759, Thornton attended medical school in Scotland, before moving to the United States and becoming a citizen of the country in 1787. Having researched the science of sleep, Thornton recorded dozens of studies. about animals and humans being revived from a dormant state.

He joined the Royal Humane Society, which was founded in London in 1774 to promote the advanced medical technique of resuscitation - mouth-to-mouth breathing - first described by surgeon William Tossack. first in 1744. This process was intended to restart breathing and heartbeat in drowning victims.

At a time when doctors sometimes confused a deep coma with death, fear of premature burial was so widespread that it led to the invention of safety coffins, such as those with a rope. The person inside can pull the bell on the ground, signaling that they are still alive.

Washington feared an accidental burial as he lay in his hospital bed on the evening of December 14, 1799. His final instructions to his secretary, Tobias Lear, were to wait at least two days before burying his body.

The former president endured 48 hours of pain after suffering a severe throat infection, believed to be acute epiglottitis, which made swallowing and breathing difficult.

As he gradually suffocated, doctors and supervisors at Mount Vernon drained 40 percent of his blood - more than two liters - in the belief that four transfusions would correct the imbalance of four substances. Basal fluids - blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile, are believed to cause infection.

Doctors also smeared the blisters with cantharide, poached his throat with gruel, and administered enemas and purgatives, until Washington ordered these efforts to stop because they only aggravated his pain. painful.

When news of the 67-year-old former president's illness reached Washington, DC, Thornton rode quickly to Mount Vernon, where he was a frequent overnight visitor.

Although he was not Washington's personal physician and had never practiced medicine after arriving in the United States, Thornton was 'fully confident he could put him into remission ', by implementing an innovative but extreme technique. Rare event - tracheostomy.

But when encountering Washington's stiff body, Thornton thought of the cases he had read about fish coming back to life after being frozen and planned to revive the late president.

He proposed 'thawing' Washington's body in cold water, before warming it with a blanket. He will then open a path to the lungs via a tracheostomy and 'inflate them with air to produce artificial respiration'. Thornton's final step was to transfuse the patient with sheep blood.

However, no one at Mount Vernon shared his belief. In particular, the family respected the advice he had given to his doctors the day before: ' I beg you not to cause me any more trouble, let me die in peace'.

The painting depicts the scene of President George Washington's death.

The president's final resting place

A few days after Washington's death, President John Adams asked Martha Washington, the executor of her husband's will, if she wanted the former president's body moved to the Capitol.

Although she had planned to bury her husband forever, the grieving widow agreed to the suggestion. However, due to lack of money and materials, the construction of the Capitol was delayed for decades, causing difficulties in the process of transferring Washington's body.

As the 100th anniversary of Washington's birth approached in 1832, public opposition in Virginia to the removal of their hero's body grew.

By the time his remains were placed in a newly built tomb at Mount Vernon on October 7, 1837, the idea of ​​the first president's resting place in the Capitol building was completely unrealized. The tomb at Mount Vernon now contains the remains of Washington, that of his wife, as well as 25 other family members.

George Washington (1732 - 1799) was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783), leading colonial forces to defeat the British and becoming a national hero. In 1787, Washington was elected President of the convention that drafted the US Constitution. Two years later, he became America's first president, serving two terms from 1789 - 1797.