Suicide Note by Sen. East Blames Failure of Diagnosis, Report Says

Sen. John P. East, a wheelchair-bound polio victim who prided himself on his mental acumen, wrote a note before killing himself last month that blamed his doctor for failing to diagnose a disease he believed had robbed him of his intellectual abilities, it was reported Saturday.

In the note, East, a Republican from North Carolina, said the Bethesda Naval Hospital and Dr. Freeman H. Cary, the attending physician of Congress, failed to detect his thyroid disease, which sapped his energy, interfered with his ability to concentrate and led to a near-fatal coma last year, the Washington Post reported.

“Dr. Cary and Bethesda Hospital failed to diagnose my hypothyroidism (as they should have). They ruined my health,” East wrote, according to five people who saw the note and were quoted but not identified by the newspaper. The parenthetical phrase was East’s.

The letter was found June 29 near East’s body in the carbon-monoxide-filled garage of his home in Greenville, N.C.

Cary, a rear admiral in the Navy reserves, was one of the doctors who treated East for the thyroid disease that was diagnosed after East lapsed into a coma in April, 1985. He was hospitalized for five weeks.

East had been confined to a wheelchair since before attending law school.

The Navy said that Cary was being released from the Capitol post he held for 13 years, and that the move was routine since Cary would reach the usual retirement age of 60 in September.

However, a Senate source, speaking on condition that he not be identified, said the move was linked to Cary’s involvement with East’s treatment.