In 1968 Salazar suffered a brain hemorrhage and lapsed into a coma. Most sources maintain that it occurred when he fell from a chair in his summer house. In February 2009 though there were anonymous witnesses who admitted after some investigation into Salazar's best-kept secrets that he had fallen in a bath instead of from a chair. As he was expected to die shortly after his fall, President Américo Tomás replaced him with Marcello Caetano. Despite the injury Salazar lived for a further two years. When he unexpectedly recovered lucidity his intimates did not tell him he had been removed from power, instead allowing him to 'rule' in privacy until his death.