DS, signed “Elvis A. Presley,” one page, 8.5 x 11, December 5, 1973. Memphis Hospital Service and Surgical Association Inc., statement of claim for major medical expense benefits stemming from Presley’s October 15, 1973 hospitalization. Document is filled out in type, with Presley’s personal information at the top, noting his illness as “pneumonia,” with Elvis under the care of Dr. George C. Nichopoulos. Signed at the bottom in blue ballpoint by Presley attesting the information given is complete and correct and that he is claiming benefits only for charges incurred by him. In very good condition, with horizontal folds and creases, staple holes to top left, some scattered light creasing and wrinkling, and light toning to right edge.
Dr. Nichopoulos—’Dr. Nick’—was Elvis’ personal physician, who first treated the King in 1967 for saddle pain, then tacked the position full-time in 1970. On October 15, 1973, several months after Presley’s famed Aloha from Hawaii concert and satellite broadcast, he was hospitalized in Memphis for recurring pneumonia—as identified on this form—as well as for pleurisy, an enlarged colon, and hepatitis. Much of his poor health was linked to an ever-growing dependency on prescription drugs—a dependency many claim was exacerbated by Nichopoulos.
In 1977, the year of Presley’s death, Nichopoulos prescribed 10,000 doses of amphetamines, barbiturates, narcotics, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, laxatives, and hormones...claiming after the singer’s passing that he had desperately, yet unsuccessfully, tried to wean his famous patient from such medication. Dr. Nick proved to be a constant companion of Presley even after his ultimately fatal abuse of prescription drugs, as he tried unsuccessfully to revive Elvis in Graceland, was present at the autopsy, and served as one of his pallbearers. Poignant, one-of-kind paperwork from the troubled, personal life of the rock icon. Pre-certified Roger Epperson/REAL and RR Auction COA.
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