Tag: Jacob Appel
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The derailment of Franklin Pierce
Jacob Appel New York, New York, United States Few subjects have attracted as much attention from medical historians, both well-founded and speculative, as the health of United States presidents. Considerable debate exists over the extent of impairment caused by Lincoln’s bouts of melancholia,1 Grant’s alcoholism,2 Wilson’s stroke,3 and Coolidge’s depression4—to name only those chief executives from…
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New Year’s Eve, Old Presbyterian Hospital
Jacob AppelNew York, New York, United States The gift shop is closed. Only a graveyardSkeleton crew in the pharmacy, a solitaryCleaner orbiting a mop across the skyway.Below lights blinking red green red throughDark and frigid silence. One more year. One more night too: cachectic, edematous,Distended — ammonia levels rising, uremiaLurking, choking up coffee grounds, bile.Unlike the…