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" George Washington The Father of Our Country took office in 1789 at 56 and seemed a long shot ever to make it to 60, nearly dying twice before the midpoint of his first term. In 1789, he ran a high fever as a result of a large abscess on his shoulder that needed to be drained. He came even closer to closing time in 1790 when he contracted pneumonia. Despite a worried letter from Thomas Jefferson (&amp;quot;We have been very near losing the President&amp;quot;), Washington recovered and served out two terms.  Andrew Jackson A notorious duelist before his election, Jackson continued to have good luck with the guns once in the White House. An attempted assassination failed when a gunman had not one, but two pistols misfire at close range (the odds of this occurring have been estimated at 125,000 to one).  James K. Polk The presidency ain&amp;#039;t an easy job. Only 49 at his inauguration -- a toddler by presidential standards -- Polk set four goals for his term: to re-establish the Independent Treasury System, buy California from Mexico, resolve a border dispute in the Pacific Northwest, and reduce tariffs. Polk accomplished all of them, declined to run again, and died a completely spent and broken man less than four months after he left office.  Chester A. Arthur Bumped up to the presidency by the assassination of William McKinley, the former Vice President sought a full term in 1884 and failed even to get the Republican nomination. It turned out to be just as well. While in office he discovered he had the kidney disorder Bright&amp;#039;s disease (then regarded as a death sentence), and though he decided to press ahead, he died just a year out of office in 1886 at age 57.  Grover Cleveland In 1893, 56-year-old Cleveland had an operation to remove a cancer from his upper jaw. Already a risky procedure to treat a life-threatening condition, he upped the stakes by having the operation performed on a friend&amp;#039;s yacht to ensure total secrecy (he was afraid of worsening an ongoing financial crisis). The treatment worked and remained unknown to the public until 1917, by which point he&amp;#039;d been dead for almost a decade.  Woodrow Wilson As 1919 wound down, 52-year-old Wilson was already frustrated and exhausted from his failure to gain support for U.N. precursor the League of Nations. Then he suffered a paralyzing stroke and his First Lady took power that Hillary can only dream of. While Edith Wilson insisted she faithfully carried out the President&amp;#039;s instructions, she controlled all access to him, meaning only papers she deemed worthy of his attention reached him during the months it took him to recover. He never completely regained his health, dying just three years after leaving office.  Harry S. Truman President James Madison had to flee Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812. Truman, however, remains the only President nearly gunned down in his home. During White House renovations, Truman lived in Blair House. Two activists for Puerto Rican independence attacked the dwelling, killing a guard in the process. How laidback was security at the time? Truman actually wound up watching one of the gunmen from a window until someone suggested that he get the hell out of the line of fire.  Dwight Eisenhower 62 when he took office, Ike survived a heart attack, a stroke, and a bowel obstruction. Impressively, he not only served out his two terms, but also lived for eight more years after leaving the White House.  Gerald Ford 1975 was a year of living dangerously for Jerry, as Charles Manson-follower Lynette Alice &amp;quot;Squeaky&amp;quot; Fromme and &amp;quot;revolutionary&amp;quot; Sara Jane Moore tried to gun him down in separate incidents within a 17-day period. Neither came particularly close, as Fromme improperly loaded her gun and Moore managed only a single shot from 40 feet away in an act committed for reasons even her own attorney admitted to never quite understanding.  Ronald Reagan Almost 70 when he took office in 1981, the Gipper barely survived John Hinckley&amp;#039;s failed attempt to impress Jodie Foster. He later underwent surgery to deal with a potentially cancerous polyp, resulting in a transfer of power to George Bush the Elder for roughly eight hours. Recent years have inspired debate about another aspect of his health. In 1994, he announced he was suffering from Alzheimer&amp;#039;s (&amp;quot;I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life&amp;quot;), triggering speculation over whether he was showing symptoms before he left office in 1989, with his staff insisting he was in complete command of his faculties but reporter Leslie Stahl noting she had an interview with him where he was so disoriented she nearly reported the President was senile. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a4668/presidential-near-death-list-052808/>