May 18, 2007 — Abraham Lincoln might have survived if today's medical technology existed in 1865.
Given that scenario, the question is whether Lincoln would have been able to return to office, says a doctor and historian who planned to speak Friday at an annual University of Maryland School of Medicine conference on the deaths of historic figures.
While the conference has traditionally re-examined the deaths of historic figures to determine if the diagnosis of the time was correct, this year's event asks if Lincoln could have been saved and what impact that would have had.
Thomas Scalea, the physician in chief at the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center, said brain injuries are unpredictable but Lincoln would have stood a good chance of surviving.
"It's a little hard to know, but I think it's a fair statement to say this is not necessarily a fatal injury, he doesn't have to die," said Scalea, who will explain how Lincoln would have been treated at his center, the world's first dedicated trauma center.
Lincoln died within 10 hours of being shot in the head at Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865. If modern methods could have saved the 16th president, he may have also retained his cognitive abilities because the fatal shot did not damage the frontal lobes of Lincoln's brain, which are responsible for language, emotion and problem solving, Scalea said.
However, Lincoln would have faced months of recovery before he could have returned to office, and whether he would have been able to communicate is unclear, the surgeon said.
U.S. presidential historian Steven Lee Carson said Lincoln's secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, who made a number of important decisions the day after the assassination, would likely have played a greater role if Lincoln had survived.
