In December 1941 Lord Moran, Winston Churchill’s personal doctor, diagnosed his patient as having had a heart attack while at the White House in Washington, DC for a conference with President Franklin Roosevelt. J. Allister Vale and John W. Scadding review Moran’s diagnosis in their article, “Did Winston Churchill suffer a myocardial infarction in the White House at Christmas 1941?” published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (2017, volume 110, issue 12). As he noted in his post-war memoirs, Moran did not inform Churchill of the heart attack diagnosis or seek medical assistance while in Washington due to the political implications of such an announcement. Instead, he chose to have the prime minister examined by Dr. John Parkinson, a cardiologist, on the party’s return to London. Parkinson examined Churchill in February 1942 and found that the prime minister had not suffered a coronary thrombosis. Vale and Scadding conclude that Moran made an incorrect diagnosis and that Parkinson’s opinion must be “considered definitive.” They further write, that “it is surprising that Wilson’s published diary does not mention this opinion [Parkinson’s diagnosis], particularly given that Wilson stated he would take Churchill to see Parkinson on his return from Washington. However, the authors also write that the decision to withhold the initial diagnosis from the patient and not seek medical assistance was correct and that Moran’s “approach may be interpreted as both shrewd and appropriate.” The web site of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine is available here.