A physical exam at Bethesda Naval Hospital on March 27, 1944 revealed: "hypertension, hypertensive heart disease, cardiac failure(left ventricle) and...acute bronchitis." From that time on the President was accompanied by naval lieutenant commander Howard Bruenn, a cardiologist. A few days after the exam Dr. Breunn lessened the president's immediate danger with digitalis.
During the fall of 1944, FDR ran for and won a fourth term. Shortly after his January 20 Inauguration the President embarked on a grueling 6,000 mile trip by ship and plane to meet Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Russia's Premier Joseph Stalin at Yalta in Russian Crimea. Upon his return, Roosevelt and his doctors decided he needed a three-week rest at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. On the afternoon of March 30, 1945, the President arrived at the Warm Springs Station looking haggard and pale. When the Warm Springs station agent saw FDR he later recalled, "The President was the worst looking man I ever saw who was still alive."
The Little White House was a cottage on the grounds of the Warm Springs Foundation. Roosevelt had been reborn at Warm Springs in the 1920s after his attack of Polio. He hoped for another rebirth in the warm Georgia hill country. During the first week in April FDR did put on some weight (he had lost 25 pounds) and seemed his old self at a press conference on April 5.
An easy day was planned for the President on Thursday, April 12. He would read the dispatches from Washington, sign some bills, and pose for a watercolor portrait. Later in the afternoon he would attend a barbecue. At 11 A.M. his valet laid out his clothes for the day: dark gray suit, vest, red-striped Harvard tie. Nearby, on the bedside table, lay a mystery book by Carter Dickson, The Punch and Judy Murders. The President had reached the Chapter entitled "Six Feet of Earth."
Roosevelt spent the waning morning and the noon hour as planned. At 1:15 the staff set the table for lunch. The President looked over some papers, while the artist daubed some red onto her canvas to recreate FDR's tie. Suddenly the President raised his left hand, squeezed his forehead, and said, "I have a terrific headache." He dropped his hand to his
