Alex Dominguez

What killed Lenin? Stress didn’t help, poison eyed

BALTIMORE (AP) — A doctor says stress, family medical history or possibly even poison led to the death of Vladimir Lenin, debunking a popular theory that a sexually-transmitted disease debilitated the former Soviet Union leader.

UCLA neurologist Dr. Harry Vinters and Russian historian Lev Lurie reviewed Lenin’s records for an annual University of Maryland School of Medicine conference that opens Friday on famous people’s deaths.

The conference is held yearly at the school, where researchers in the past have re-examined the diagnoses of figures including King Tut, Christopher Columbus, Simon Bolivar and Abraham Lincoln.

The 53-year-old Soviet leader suffered several strokes before dying in 1924 and what caused them isn’t clear.

An autopsy found blood vessels in his brain were extremely hardened, results that have been difficult to understand, said Dr. Philip Mackowiak, who organizes the yearly event.

“Number one, he’s so young and number two, he has none of the important risk factors,” Mackowiak said.

Lenin didn’t smoke — he never let smokers near him. He also didn’t have diabetes, wasn’t overweight and the autopsy didn’t find any evidence of high blood pressure, Mackowiak said.

There was “considerable suspicion” among Russians at the time of Lenin’s death that syphilis was to blame, Mackowiak said.

However, family history appears to have worked more against Lenin, Vinters said.

Lenin was treated for syphilis using the primitive medications available at the time, and while the sexually transmitted disease can cause strokes, there is no evidence from his symptoms or the autopsy that was the case with Lenin, Vinters said.

The Soviet leader’s father also died at 54 and both may have been predisposed to hardening of the arteries. Stress also is a risk factor for strokes, and there’s no question the communist revolutionary was under plenty of that, the neurologist said.

“People were always trying to assassinate him, for example.” Vinters said.

Lurie, a St. Petersburg-based expert in Russian history and politics who also planned to speak at the conference, said that while Lenin had several strokes, he believes Stalin may finished him off with poison, a theory that Vinters said is a possibility.

Lenin’s health had been growing worse over time. In 1921, he forgot the words of a major speech and he had to learn to speak again and write with his left hand after one stroke. A major stroke later left him paralyzed on one side and unable to speak.

However, Lurie said Lenin had recovered enough in early 1924 that he celebrated the new year and went hunting. Lenin, who supported Josef Stalin’s rise to power, may have realized he made a mistake and began aligning himself with Leon Trotsky, which caused Stalin to poison Lenin, the historian said.

Poisoning, in fact, eventually became one of Stalin’s favorite methods of dispose of enemies, Lurie said.

“The funny thing is that the brain of Lenin still is preserved in Moscow, so we can investigate,” Lurie said.

Lenin’s embalmed body also still lies on public display in a Red Square mausoleum almost 20 years after the collapse of the communist state he helped bring to life.

Vinters, who reviewed autopsy records and the leader’s clinical history, said toxicology tests that might have revealed poisoning were not conducted during the autopsy. Reports from the time also show Lenin was active and talking a few hours before his death.

“And then he experienced a series of really, really bad convulsions which is quite unusual for someone who has a stroke,” Vinters said.

What killed Lenin? Stress didn’t help, poison eyed

BALTIMORE (AP) — A doctor says stress, family medical history or possibly even poison led to the death of Vladimir Lenin, debunking a popular theory that a sexually-transmitted disease debilitated the former Soviet Union leader.

UCLA neurologist Dr. Harry Vinters has reviewed Lenin’s records for an annual University of Maryland School of Medicine conference that opens Friday on famous people’s deaths.

The 53-year-old Soviet leader suffered several strokes before dying in 1924 and what caused them isn’t clear. Lenin didn’t smoke, have high blood pressure or other common risk factors.

At the time of Lenin’s death, some Russians suspected syphilis caused the strokes. Russian historian Lev Lurie says fellow Soviet leader Josef Stalin may have finished him off.

The conference has re-examined the deaths of King Tut, Christopher Columbus, Abraham Lincoln and others.

Leading Obama critic named archbishop of Baltimore

BALTIMORE (AP) — The leading voice of Roman Catholic bishops opposing a contraception mandate in the Obama administration’s health care law was named Tuesday as the 16th archbishop of Baltimore, the nation’s first diocese.

Bishop William E. Lori comes from the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., and has testified before Congress several times in the past few months on a proposed measure to make religious employers cover contraception for its employees. The White House later backed off the rule, making insurers pay for the coverage, though many critics are still not satisfied.

In one instance in February, Lori drew an extended analogy between the mandate to cover contraception and a hypothetical mandate forcing all restaurants nationwide to serve pork, saying it is “absurd for someone to come into a kosher deli and demand a ham sandwich.”

Lori, 60, was born in Louisville, Ky., and ordained a priest in 1977. He became a bishop in 1995 and has served as Bishop of Bridgeport since 2001. He oversaw a diocese that includes more than 460,000 Catholics.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore serves 510,000 Catholics in Baltimore and nine counties in central and western Maryland. The post is considered a prominent one because it is the first Catholic diocese in the United States, established in 1789. Four of the men who have held the post have gone on to become cardinals.

In a statement released Tuesday, Lori said the “very thought of serving and leading the Nation’s Premier See fills me with joy and also with profound gratitude.”

Lori has a bachelor’s degree from the now-closed Seminary of Saint Pius X in Erlanger, Ky., and a master’s degree from Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg. He received a doctorate from The Catholic University of America in Washington and has served on several committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

His assignment to Baltimore will not be the first time Lori has served in Maryland. His first assignment was as an associate pastor of Saint Joseph Parish in Landover.

He is a fan of classic cars and television shows from the 1960s. At one point he had dogs named Barnes and Noble.

Lori will succeed Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, who served as Baltimore’s 15th archbishop from October 2007 to August 2011 when he was named grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

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Associated Press reporter Jessica Gresko contributed to this story.

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Baltimore adult district hit by five-alarm fire

At least four buildings affected, two evacuated, in afternoon blaze spreading through adult venues on "the Block"

A five-alarm fire broke out Monday afternoon in a building in Baltimore’s adult-entertainment district, spreading quickly, sending thick smoke throughout downtown and snarling traffic.

Fire spokesman Battalion Chief Kevin Cartwright said the blaze started in one building then spread to four or five others. Two buildings were evacuated, he said, including one that houses fire department offices. The area is known as The Block.

Cartwright said no injuries were reported.

Grayish smoke billowed out of at least one of the buildings, blanketing downtown and firefighters on ladders and cranes poured water on the flames.

The Block is a neighborhood of strip clubs with gaudy lights, including Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club. Some of the venues are historic theaters.

Joanna Trela, 38, an office manager for a law firm, works on the 27th floor of a building overlooking the fire scene. She said she looked out the window and spotted the fire after an attorney in her firm suggested that something was wrong with the ventilation system.

“We smelled it,” Trela said.

The fire had her temporarily stranded.

“The most frustrating part is, they shut down the parking garage, so nobody in our building can leave, so we’re all kind of hanging out,” Trela said.

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Police: Johns Hopkins gunman killed himself, mother

Paul Warren Pardus, 50, alias Warren Davis, reportedly distraught by doctor's news of her condition

A man who became distraught as he was being briefed on his mother’s condition by a surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital pulled a gun and shot the doctor Thursday, then killed his mother and himself in her room at the world-famous medical center, police said.

The doctor, who was wounded in the abdomen, was expected to survive.

The gunman, 50-year-old Paul Warren Pardus, had been listening to the surgeon around midday when he “became emotionally distraught and reacted … and was overwhelmed by the news of his mother’s condition,” Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said.

Pardus pulled a semiautomatic gun from his waistband and shot the doctor once, the commissioner said. The doctor, identified by colleagues as orthopedic surgeon David B. Cohen, collapsed outside the eighth-floor room where Pardus’ mother, Jean Davis, was being treated.

Pardus then holed up in the room in a more than two-hour standoff that led authorities to lock down a small section of the Nelson Building while allowing the rest of the sprawling red-brick medical complex — a cluster of hospital, research and education buildings — to remain open.

When officers made their way to the room, they found Pardus and his mother shot to death, he on the floor, she in her bed.

Bealefeld said he did not know what the woman was being treated for at Hopkins, a world-class institution widely known for its cancer research and treatment. It is part of Johns Hopkins University, which has one of the foremost medical schools in the world.

Michelle Burrell, who works in a coffee shop in the hospital lobby, said she was told by employees who were on the floor where the doctor was shot that the gunman was angry with the doctor’s treatment of his mother.

“It’s crazy,” she said.

Pardus was from Arlington, Va., and had a handgun permit in that state, police said. The gunman was initially identified as Warren Davis, but police later said that was an alias.

The wounded doctor, an assistant professor at the medical school, underwent surgery.

“The doctor will be OK,” police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. “He’s in the best place in the world — at Johns Hopkins Hospital.”

With more than 30,000 employees, the Johns Hopkins medical system is Baltimore’s biggest private employer. The hospital has more than 1,000 beds and more than 1,700 full-time doctors.

The Nelson Building is the main hospital tower. The eighth floor is home to orthopedic, spine, trauma and thoracic services.

Hopkins said it informed its employees about the gunman in an e-mail at 11:30 a.m., about a half-hour after the doctor was shot. They were told to remain in their offices or rooms with the doors locked and to stay away from the windows. At 1:30 p.m., another e-mail went out advising employees that police “are in control of the situation.”

As the standoff dragged on, people with appointments in other parts of the hospital were encouraged to keep them.

Hannah Murtaugh, 25, a first-year student at the nursing school, said her physiology class in an adjacent building was put on lockdown. She said a classmate received a text-message warning from the school about a gunman in the Nelson Building. Her professor interrupted the lecture to let students know.

“They just kept telling us to stay away from the windows,” she said. “I was scared — wondering if any of my friends or other students who had clinicals that day were on that floor, hoping the situation would be contained, trying to see what was going on while staying away from the windows.”

She said security personnel helped keep everyone calm and made sure doors were locked.

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Associated Press writers Ben Nuckols and Kathleen Miller in Baltimore and Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

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Police: Johns Hopkins gunman killed himself, mother

Warren Davis, 50, reportedly overwhelmed by doctor's news of her condition. Unclear what she was being treated for

The man who shot and wounded a doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital and then killed himself and his mother was distraught over news of his mother’s condition, Baltimore police said Thursday.

Baltimore police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said the gunman, 50-year-old Warren Davis, shot his mother, Jean Davis, in her hospital room. The doctor, who was not identified, had been telling Davis about his mother’s condition when the man “became emotionally distraught and reacted … and was overwhelmed by the news of his mother’s condition,” Bealefeld said.

He said he did not know what the woman was being treated for.

Davis then pulled a semiautomatic handgun from his waistband shot the doctor once in the abdomen, the commissioner said. After that, Davis holed up in his mother’s hospital room for two hours.

When officers made their way to room 873, they found Warren Davis dead on the floor and his mother dead in her hospital bed.

The doctor, who collapsed just outside the room, underwent surgery and is expected to survive, police said. His name has not been released by police or the hospital.

Michelle Burrell, who works in a coffee shop in the hospital lobby, said she was told by employees who were on the floor where the doctor was shot that the gunman was angry with the doctor’s treatment of his mother.

“Basically, he was upset about his mother being paralyzed by the doctor,” Burrell said. “It’s crazy.”

A small area of the hospital had been locked down before the gunman died, as about a dozen officers wearing vests and helmets and carrying assault weapons prepared to go into the hospital at midday. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the gunman had not taken any hostages, and people with appointments in other parts of the hospital were encouraged to keep them.

The FBI was assisting Baltimore police, said FBI spokesman Richard J. Wolf.

The gunman was on the 8th floor of the Nelson building, the main hospital tower. According to the Hopkins website, the eighth floor is home to orthopedic, spine, trauma and thoracic services.

Guglielmi said the situation was contained to that part of the hospital, and no people had been locked in rooms or otherwise in danger.

The rest of the massive hospital, research and medical education complex remained open, including the emergency department.

With more than 30,000 employees, Johns Hopkins Medicine is among Maryland’s largest private employers and the largest in Baltimore. The hospital has more than 1,000 beds and more than 1,700 full-time doctors.

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Associated Press writers Ben Nuckols and Kathleen Miller contributed to this report.

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