I think it was pretty standard fare at the time not to tell patients the real deal on how grave their condition was. There the story about Babe Ruth about how no one ever told him had cancer until the very end. No idea if that's true or not.
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Originally Posted by marzoumanian
Kudos to MLB for FINALLY recognizing Lou and his ALS struggles with a special day. By the way, it is also worth reading the story on the MLB website now about the letters Lou wrote to his doctor in his last years. Believe it or not, a collector in Maryland bought ALL of those letters for $50,000 at a Christie's auction back in 1998. He held onto them tight until author Jonathan Eig (working on a book about Gehrig back in 2003) persuaded the collector to let him read them all. The collector sold the letters last year for hundreds of thousands, again using Christie's.
What is heartbreaking is these letters show that the doctor at the Mayo Clinic knew that Lou's days were numbered but, encouraged by his wife, gave him false hope after false hope that he could recover/stabilize. It's an eyeopening piece of journalism at MLB.com. Check it out.
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