Dr. Howard Bruenn

June 20, 1905 — July 29, 1995

Howard Bruenn was a young doctor and rising star in the emerging field of cardiology when World War II broke out. He joined the Navy as a doctor and was serving at Bethesda Naval Hospital in the spring of 1944 when a surprise patient changed the course of his life. That patient was the President of the United States, and he was suffering from undiagnosed congestive heart failure. Through Admiral Ross McIntire would officially remain Roosevelt’s White House physician, Bruenn would treat Roosevelt for the rest of his life, traveling with him across the country and overseas to Yalta. After Roosevelt died, conspiracy theories abounded about his cause of death, a problem made worse by the immediate disappearance of Roosevelt’s medical records. (It has long been suggested that McIntire removed them.) Ever a man of discretion, Bruenn said nothing about his patient’s private affairs until he received a letter from Anna Roosevelt many years later, in which she asked for his help in putting the matter to rest.

Photograph: https://navymedicine.navylive.dodlive.mil/archives/8066