
We've all experienced waking up with a sore throat, a sure sign that we're about to get sick. It's almost always a mild illness — and in the rare cases where it signals something worse, we can usually expect to have several days of worsening symptoms.
For George Washington, however, it was a different experience. As PBS NewsHour reports, he woke up with a sore throat on December 13, and he was dead a little more than a day later.
The disease, which modern doctors believe was probably acute bacterial epiglottitis, moved with terrible swiftness. After going out and doing his work to run his estate on December 13, Washington awoke in the middle of the night, struggling to breathe. As Smithsonian Magazine notes, he had chills and fever, and his throat had become swollen. Doctors attended the former president all day, but his condition continued to get worse and worse (in part due to the crude treatments his doctors inflicted on him).
At five o'clock in the evening, Washington rallied slightly and was able to review his last will and testament and issue some instructions about his burial and his business. About five hours later, he fell unconscious and died on December 14, 1799. Washington's entire illness lasted less than two days.
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