title: On the death of Kentuckian Charles Floyd, August 20, 1804--the only casualty of the Lewis and Clark expedition: a solution to a 200-year-old medical mystery.
abstract: As a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Charles Floyd was the first United States soldier to die west of the Mississippi River. He was among his companions and developed the sudden onset of abdominal pain and was dead the next day. The most common medical opinion for cause of death has been acute appendicitis. However a new edition of his journal reveals signs and symptoms previously overlooked suggesting a genetically determined metabolic etiology, which is explored in this report to the conclusion that he died from acute intermittent porphyria.
authors.affiliation: Consultants in Blood Disorders and Cancer, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
authors.forename: Charles L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Dannaher
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005101:Expeditions / Q000266:history*; D005197:Famous Persons; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006236:Handwriting; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D007629:Kentucky; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000266:history*; D017118:Porphyria, Acute Intermittent / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D011996:Records