Prisoners of Time: The Misdiagnosis of FDR’s 1921 Illness

In 1921, at age 39, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was struck by a serious illness that left his legs permanently paralyzed. FDR’s illness was diagnosed by his doctors as infantile paralysis (paralytic polio), and that diagnosis was universally accepted. Over eight decades later, Dr. Armond S. Goldman and his colleagues discovered that a very different disease - Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) - nearly unknown in the US in 1921 - was the most likely cause of FDR’s illness. A great controversy ensued, which continues to this day.

Prisoners of Time is a case study of how doctors can only diagnose what they know, how millions of people can accept myth as fact, and how new research can correct the historical record. Readers are invited to enjoy the intriguing story and form their own conclusions, based on the evidence presented.

Prisoners of Time tells the complete story of FDR’s illness, how he nearly died, how Eleanor saved his life, why FDR’s doctors got the diagnosis wrong, the first clues that FDR did not have polio, how it was determined that FDR likely had GBS, why the polio misdiagnosis has persisted, and why getting the diagnosis correct matters.

Prisoners of Time is the first complete telling of FDR’s 1921 illness. This book will appeal to those interested in FDR, medical diagnosis, controversy in the sciences, or just a real-life detective story. I welcome historians, physicians and general readers to read the book and weigh the evidence for themselves. - Dr. Christopher Gardner-Thorpe, MD, FRCP, FRCPE, FACP (History Courses Director, The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London)