Lena Horne - At Long Last Love [Composed by Cole Porter]

Medscape - Thursday, October 12, 2017
The Painful Life of Cole Porter - Howard Markel, MD, PhD

Porter's medical history, is scrupulously documented in a biography by William McBrien. After years of equestrian sportsmanship, in October of 1937, the composer's legs were crushed when his horse shied and rolled directly over them. The half-ton horse's fall delivered compound fractures to both of Porter's thighbones and provided the entryway for osteomyelitis, perhaps 1 of the most serious and difficult to treat infections known. Even today, as every doctor knows all too well, infections of the bones, which are slow to absorb even the most powerful of antibiotics, present a daunting challenge to treatment.

Always an optimist with his chin pointing decidedly northward, Porter told friends that in the hours immediately after his fateful accident, as he waited for emergency medical help, he took out his notebook and composed the lyrics for what became the hit song, "At Long Last Love."