A Trained Physician And Friend Of George Washington Devised A Plan To Bring Him Back To Life
When George Washington died on the night of December 14, 1799, the nation mourned the loss of its first president.
While the country grieved over Washington’s demise, one man refused to accept his death. Dr. William Thornton, a trained physician and a friend to the former president, devised a plan to bring Washington back to life.
After riding his horse through cold, wet, and snowy weather, Washington contracted a virulent throat infection.
On the evening of December 13, 1799, he woke up struggling to swallow and breathe. Doctors were called to his home in Mount Vernon and tended to him all night long.
In an effort to cure him, they drained 40 percent of his blood, a procedure called bloodletting, which was commonly performed during that time.
The doctors also administered various tonics that came close to choking the president. Eventually, he asked them to stop what they were doing.
When Thornton received news of Washington’s illness, he hurried to Mount Vernon, but by the time he showed up, the president had already passed away.
Still, Thornton was convinced that he could revive Washington. He wanted to conduct an extremely rare and risky method of surgery called a tracheotomy.
Thornton was a graduate of a top medical school in Scotland. He was born in the West Indies in 1759 and raised in England.
kmiragaya – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
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He moved to the United States in 1787 and obtained American citizenship. In addition to his medical expertise, he was also an amateur architect.
His design for the U.S. Capitol building was chosen by Washington himself in 1793. The following year, he was appointed as one of the three commissioners to oversee the construction of the building.
Upon seeing Washington’s stiff, frozen corpse, Thornton was reminded of the cases he had recorded during his studies on the science of sleep.
He thought back to how fish had been reported to be brought back to life after freezing and proposed that he try the same technique on Washington’s body.
His plan was to thaw the corpse in cold water before wrapping it in blankets to warm it up. Next, he would cut open a passage to the lungs with a tracheotomy and fill them with air to simulate breathing.
Then, he would perform a blood transfusion, replenishing Washington’s blood supply with the blood from a lamb.
There was no doubt in his mind that the resurrection was possible, but the Washington family did not share the same confidences.
In the end, Thornton’s attempts were blocked. The family wanted to honor Washington’s last words, instructing them to let him go quietly.
They argued that preserving the former president’s legacy and letting him rest in peace, especially after his excruciatingly slow death, was better than conducting some kind of science experiment on his body.
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