Historial médico de Bernardo OïHiggins: 1778-1842 / A medical history of Bernardo OïHiggins: 1778-1842

ABSTRACT

Bernardo O'Higgins was a very apprehensive individual regarding his health and ailments. This fact is clearly reflected in his letters, that provide valuable anamnestic data. During his youth, while living is Spain, he suffered of yellow fever and later in Chile, he probably had an acute phase of a rheumatic fever. Since his adolescence, he was affected by a chronic blepharo-conjunctivitis. During the Chilean independence revolution, he suffered several battle wounds. The most severe was a shot that affected both his right arm and elbow (1818). While living in Peru (1823-1842) he suffered of dysentery and malaria. The latter was an endemic disease in the valleys of Peru. Being previously asymptomatic, he started experiencing exentional dyspnea, angor pectoris and syncopal episodes in 1840. At that time, physicians diagnosed a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Analyzing his symptoms and taking into account their short term evolution, the author concludes that they were a consequence of either an aortic stenosis or coronary insufficiency. These led him to a heart failure that was his immediate cause of death in 1842