"Shah of Iran Physician" Claude Forkner Signed 3X5.5 Card COA For Sale

Up for sale a RARE!"Shah of Iran Physician" Claude Forkner Hand Signed 3X5.5 Card.This item is authenticatedBy Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their certificate of authenticity.

ES-6955EForkner met Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1949 at the Rockefeller Institute in New York when the leader fell ill on a visit to the United States. He was advised to have surgery to remove a benign tumor in his small intestine, a diseased appendix, and "an unsightly wound in his left shoulder," Forkner said in an interview in 1979. The wound was from a would-be assassin's bullet. The shah declined surgery saying he couldn't take the time. During an Iranian uprising two years later, Forkner heard the shah was ill again. Believing the test results might be helpful, Forkner reminded the shah in a letter. After receiving a call from the State Department, Forkner was told he was needed on a secret mission for the government. His task was to perform the much-needed surgery for the shah. In the middle of the uprising, the doctor spent six weeks in Tehran, Iran, arranging for the operation and for a surgical team to be flown in from the United States. "We didn't know who we could trust in Iran," Forkner said during the interview. During the 30 years Forkner worked for the royal family, his relationship with the shah became a friendship. "There is an important point that Americans have been mislead about. They think the shah is a vicious autocrat. He is really a soft, friendly man with a good heart." Born in Stevensville, Mont., Forkner moved to Central Florida in 1969. He was a World War II veteran. Forkner was president of the Section of Internal Medicine of the Pan-American Medical Association and founder and executive director of the Medical Passport Foundation Inc. and Panel of Advisors. He was on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Internal Medicine and was also chairman of the Examining Committee. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, board of trustees of Columbia University Teachers College, New York State Commission on Medical Education, and the Presidential Counselors of Stetson University, DeLand. He also was a member of the Century Association, Harvard Club of New York City and the DeLand Country Club. He wrote more than 125 medical papers, including "Leukemia and Allied Disorders," and was the editor of Practitioners Conferences.