The Nation - News from Oct. 1, 1987

Fatigue and legionnaire’s disease diagnosed on a trip to West Germany were the first signs of the illness that killed Henry Ford II, the head of one of the nation’s greatest industrial empires, doctors said. Ford, who celebrated his 70th birthday in the resort of Baden-Baden on Sept. 4, called his family doctor in Detroit a day earlier complaining of fatigue, a cough and fever. Dr. Bruce Steinhauer flew to West Germany, where the Legionella bacteria had been diagnosed, and began administering antibiotics. At Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where Ford died Tuesday, Dr. Louis Saravolatz said: “This is not an unequivocal diagnosis, but it strongly suggests it was a diagnosis of legionnaire’s disease as being his first event.”