Gershwin Diagnosis: It Aint Necessarily So

NYT June 24, 2001

Gershwin Diagnosis: It Ain't Necessarily So By ERIKA KINETZ

WHEN George Gershwin died in 1937 at the tragically early age of 38, his doctors said he had been suffering from a fast- growing malignant brain tumor. But a pathologist in Louisiana has come up with another diagnosis that the tumor may have been slow-growing and treatable, even with the technology of the time.

In a recent paper in The Journal of Medical Biography, Dr. Gregory D. Sloop, an associate professor of pathology at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, bases his conclusion on photographs of microscope slides taken from Gershwin's brain including one that had been overlooked for decades and on descriptions of the composer's final illness.

Dr. Sloop says the slides show tumor cells that lack the shape and characteristics of a malignant tumor. And he says the duration of Gershwin's neurological symptoms at least three and a half years makes an aggressive tumor unlikely. 'You don't live that long with the bad ones,' he said in an interview.

When he was 23, Gershwin began complaining of vague abdominal pain and constipation. Doctors found no physical basis for the complaints and told him the illness was in his head. He eventually sought psychotherapy.

But in early 1937, his behavior turned bizarre. He tried to push his chauffeur out of a moving car, smeared chocolates on his body, complained that he smelled burning rubber and forgot his own music at a performance.

He received little sympathy. 'There were people who said of him that he was an attention-seeker,' said Hershey Felder, the creator and star of 'George Gershwin Alone,' a Broadway show. 'They thought he was just making antics.'

On June 23, Gershwin was admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, complaining of debilitating headaches. He refused a spinal tap, a painful procedure that was commonly used to diagnose brain tumors, and was discharged with a diagnosis of 'most likely hysteria.'

Considering his history and symptoms, it has always seemed likely that Gershwin's pathology was of very long duration. The symptoms, today, would probably have been diagnosed as epileptic and spurred further invesitigation. I don't know when Dr. Sloop looked at the slides but we've been telling our med students about this for almost 10 years now.

Kal

On Sat, 30 Jun 2001 18:02:35 -0400, Premise Checker

That and other things. My point was that the diagnosis would/should have been made with today's knowledge.

Oh dear. This is the hospital where I was born.

The Sloop story was on NPR months ago. Nice that the NYT and bandit Checker are so up to date.

At the exact same time as Gershwin died???? Hmmm...sounds like something from a sci-fi flick.

No, there were about sixteen years between Gershwin's death and my birth.