In 1912 Teddy Roosevelt, of the most strange Presidents in American along with Andrew Jackson, Gave a speech. Teddy was known for his long speeches lasting 40 or more pages. When Teddy rose to give his speech he asked everyone to quiet down. His next line was:

“I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot.”

Teddy proceeded to pull out a 50 page speech from his coat pocket. Going though every page was a bullet hole. Teddy then expressed regret over not being able to give the full speech as the bullet was now inside of him. Teddy that gave a 90 minute speech. The whole time his staff looked on from the side of the stage in worry and begged him to stop. Some even positioned themselves to catch him if he fell. Teddy finished his speech and only then allowed himself to be taken to the hospital.

It’s not even that Teddy had been shot while giving the speech. When he arrived at the venue he had been shot and a doctor was called. Teddy felt the whole in his chest and instead of going to the hospital his forced himself to cough three times and looked at his hand. After seeing that he hadn’t coughed up blood (a sign that the bullet had pierced his lung) he demanded that he give the speech.

Newspapers praised him saying he was a battery of energy. While looking at the x-rays the doctors said that if the speech had no slowed the bullet down it would have hit him in the heart and killed him. Had it not  been for his eye glass and the 50 page speech he had not been killed. So maybe next time you go a little over the word count on something, it’s not such a bad thing.