Editing Lyndon B. Johnson (section)

===Health===
[[File:LBJ-Ranch-1972.jpg|thumb|Johnson wearing a [[cowboy hat]] at his [[Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park|Texas ranch]], 1972]]
On July 2, 1955, at age 46, Johnson, a 60-cigarette-per-day smoker, suffered a near-fatal [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]], which inspired him to discontinue smoking. Five months later, Johnson's doctors reported he had made "a most satisfactory recovery".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=A7-hzOuI2KQC&dat=19560101&printsec=frontpage |title=Lyndon Johnson To Retain Post |date=January 1, 1956 |newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ie8Y0QrpMWAC&dat=19560101&printsec=frontpage |title=Johnson To Continue As Demo Leader |date=January 1, 1956 |newspaper=Times Daily}}</ref>

Johnson may have suffered a second heart attack following President Kennedy's assassination, but the diagnosis released to the public was that he had an [[angina]] attack.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.villages-news.com/2019/02/06/lyndon-baines-johnsons-heart-attacks/|title=Lyndon Baines Johnson's heart attacks|first=Gabe|last=Mirkin|date=February 6, 2019|website=Villages-News: News, photos, events in The Villages, Florida}}</ref>

On November 8, 1965, Johnson underwent surgery at [[Bethesda Naval Hospital]] to remove his [[gallbladder]] and a [[kidney stone]]. After the procedure, Johnson's doctors reported that the president had come through the surgery "beautifully as expected."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gilbert |first=Robert E. |title=Presidential Disability and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment: The Difficulties Posed By Psychological Illness |journal=Fordham Law Review |volume=79 |issue=3 |year=2010 |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol79/iss3/5 |pages=843–879}}</ref> He was able to resume his duties the following day, and he met with reporters a couple of days later to reassure the nation that he was recovering well. Although Johnson was incapacitated during surgery, there was no transfer of presidential power to Vice President Humphrey.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Politics and the president's gallbladder |last=Pappas |first=Theodore N. |date=July 1, 2017 |journal=Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons |volume=102 |issue=7 |pages=71–72 |pmid=28885794 |url=http://bulletin.facs.org/2017/07/politics-and-the-presidents-gallbladder/ |access-date=October 5, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=The Political Effects of Presidential Illness: The Case of Lyndon B. Johnson |last=Gilbert |first=Robert E. |journal=Political Psychology |volume=16 |issue=4 |date=December 1995 |pages=761–776 |publisher=International Society of Political Psychology |jstor=3791892 |doi=10.2307/3791892}}</ref>

In March 1970, Johnson suffered an attack of [[angina]] and was taken to [[San Antonio Military Medical Center|Brooke Army General Hospital]] in [[San Antonio]]. He had gained more than {{convert|25|lb}} since leaving the White House; he now weighed around {{convert|235|lb}} and was urged to lose considerable weight. By the summer of 1970, again gripped by chronic chest pains, Johnson lost {{convert|15|lb}} in less than a month on a crash water diet. He had also resumed smoking shortly before Christmas 1971, having not smoked since his near-fatal heart attack in July 1955.<ref name="LastDays"/>

In April 1972, Johnson had another major heart attack while visiting his daughter, Lynda, in Virginia. "I'm hurting real bad",<ref name="LastDays" /> he confided to friends. The chest pains returned nearly every afternoon {{mdashb}} jolting pains that left him frightened and breathless. A portable [[oxygen tank]] was kept by his bed, and he periodically interrupted what he was doing to lie down and don the mask. He continued to smoke heavily and, although nominally on a [[low-calorie diet|low-calorie]], [[dietary cholesterol|low-cholesterol diet]], kept to it only intermittently. Meanwhile, he began to experience severe abdominal pains, diagnosed as [[diverticulosis]]. His heart condition rapidly worsened and surgery was recommended. Johnson flew to Houston to consult with heart specialist [[Michael DeBakey]], where he learned his condition was terminal. DeBakey found that despite two of Johnson's coronary arteries being in urgent need of a [[coronary bypass]], his heart was in such poor condition that he likely would have died during surgery.<ref name="theatlantic1973"/>