Whether in the 1960s or today, Americans too often view death as a failure. If someone dies, especially of a disease that is often treatable, we assume that a mistake must have been made. But Roosevelt herself had realized the fallacy of this argument. Even if her tuberculosis had responded to treatment, she was seriously ill with progressive aplastic anemia and intestinal bleeding and would likely never have returned to the active, independent life she had always led. The case of Eleanor Roosevelt reminds us that unfortunate outcomes are not always preventable.
Some patients die because of medical mistakes, but other patients just die.
Barron H. Lerner, MD, PhD, an assistant professor at Columbia University, is completing a book on the history of breast cancer screening and treatment in the 20th century.