Dr. Lee Expects President to Live

St. Louis Physician Who Attended Him the Day He Was Shot Returns Home.

     Doctor Edward W. Lee of No. 4168 Maryland avenue, one of the physicians who attended President McKinley immediately after he was shot, returned to St. Louis from Buffalo yesterday. Doctor Lee saw the President two hours before leaving Buffalo on Sunday, and says that at that time he was perfectly cheerful, appearing to suffer no pain, and was confident that he would recover.
     Doctor Lee says it is probable that the bullet which pierced the President’s stomach will not be removed at all. He said that it had evidently lodged in the tissues of the back and that the flesh had closed about it. There will be no reason for going after the missile unless it should cause some specific trouble. It is likely that the President will carry the bullet in his body for the remainder of his life.
     “The incision which was made in the President’s stomach was closed up after the effort to find the bullet had failed,” said Doctor Lee. “Now, the stomach, which penetrated by the bullet, is healing up, and it is not likely that another operation will be resorted to; not, anyhow, before the patient has become much stronger. It is not uncommon for persons to carry bullets in their bodies and suffer no disagreeable effects. This will in all likelihood be the case with President McKinley.
     “I believe that if the President continues to improve as he has for the last thirty-six hours, he will be restored to health. In fact, I think his recovery is almost a certainty, unless some unlooked-for development sets him back. I do not know of anything of this kind which is likely to happen.
     “I notice that I was quoted by a St. Louis paper as saying that the President’s case was hopeless. This is a mistake. I thought from the first that the case was very serious, but never doubted that he could recover.
     “The idea is pretty generally current that the bullet which struck Mr. McKinley in the chest, entered the body and was removed by means of an operation. This was not the case. Only one bullet entered the President’s body. The one which struck his chest came in contact with the breast bone on the right side, inflicting a black and blue bruise, but not penetrating. The bullet was found in the President’s clothes when we removed them at the Emergency Hospital.”