William Henry Harrison
Presidents do occasionally die while in office. This one actually died from pneumonia symptoms.
On March 26, 1841, Harrison became ill with cold-like symptoms. His symptoms grew progressively worse over the next two days, at which time a team of doctors was called in to treat him.[116] The prevailing misconception at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier.[117] The doctors diagnosed him with right lower lobe pneumonia, then placed heated suction cups on his bare torso and administered a series of bloodlettings to draw out the disease.[118] Those procedures failed to bring about improvement, so the doctors treated him with ipecac, castor oil, calomel, and finally with a boiled mixture of crude petroleum and Virginia snakeroot. All this only weakened Harrison further.[116]
Initially, no official announcement was made concerning Harrison's illness, which fueled public speculation and concern the longer he remained out of public view. By the end of the month, large crowds were gathering outside the White House, holding vigil while awaiting any news about the president's condition.[116] Harrison died on April 4, 1841, nine days after becoming ill[119] and exactly one month after taking the oath of office; he was the first president to die in office.[118] Jane McHugh and Philip A. Mackowiak did an analysis in Clinical Infectious Diseases (2014), examining Dr. Miller's notes and records of the White House water supply being downstream of public sewage, and they concluded that he likely died of septic shock due to "enteric fever" (typhoid or paratyphoid fever).[120][121] His last words were to his attending doctor, though assumed to be directed at Vice President John Tyler:
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