by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | November 20, 2019
From the November 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Ms. Rose’s doctor was also present during the consultation with Grubbe and he introduced the two. Lee agreed to attempt radiation therapy and on January 28, 1896 from 10 to 11 a.m., he bombarded the tumor within Lee’s chest wall with radiation – a full hour of treatment. The treatment was continued a number of times over the course of a little more than two weeks.
The result was less than ideal with Lee dying of cancer within a month of her treatment. It should be noted that Grubbe didn’t publish his account until close to a decade later, by which time others were laying claim to discovering radiation therapy. He claimed his delay was because at the time of the treatments, he was not yet a licensed medical doctor. Furthering the mystery is the fact that no death certificate has turned up for Lee from 1896 and close analysis of the notes Grubbe wrote about their cases appear to date them years after the supposed treatments. Still, Grubbe went on to open an X-ray clinic in Chicago which gave him a healthy business – if not a healthy body. His use of liberal doses of unshielded radiation resulted in more than 100 amputations over the course of his career.
Even his biography, written after his death (as a requirement attached to the willing of his fortune to the University of Chicago) was damaging when it went beneath the layers. His appointed biographer, Dr. Paul Hodges, said, “If you’re going to be fool enough to leave your money to have your biography written, then try to lead an exemplary life. Failing that, for God’s sake, remember to tell your lawyer to stipulate that it be a positive biography.”
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