By the end of November Mary was at wits' end and Saviers suggested Hemingway go to the Mayo Clinician Minnesota, where he may have believed he was to be treated for hypertension.
In an attempt at anonymity, he was checked in under Saviers' name. Meyers writes that "an aura of secrecy surrounds Hemingway's treatment at the Mayo", but confirms he was treated with electroconvulsive therapy as many as 15 times in December 1960, then in January 1961 he was "released in ruins". Reynolds accessed Hemingway's records at the Mayo which indicate the combination of medications may have created a depressive state, for which he was treated.