Rawhide Down_ The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan - Del Quentin Wilber [130]
second shooting victim: This patient is James Brady. In the interest of narrative clarity, I describe his arrival at the hospital in the next chapter.
Approximately seven minutes: Interview with Gens; chronology provided to the author by Dr. Benjamin Aaron, who reviewed Reagan’s entire medical file at my request. The chest tube was put in at about 2:40 p.m., according to Aaron’s time line. Dr. Joseph Giordano believes he was in the ER for about three minutes before inserting the tube. At this moment, Giordano is about to arrive in the ER.
9: STAT to the ER
Dr. Joseph Giordano leaned: Interview with Joseph Giordano.
a backwater by the medical establishment: I relied on interviews with Dr. Donald Trunkey and Dr. David Boyd, as well as numerous articles in medical journals, in describing the history and evolution of trauma care; “Accidental Death and Disability: The Neglected Disease of Modern Society,” National Academy of Sciences, September 1966.
As Giordano discovered, GW: Interviews with Giordano and Craig DeAtley.
R Adams Cowley, an innovative surgeon: In describing Shock Trauma, I relied on interviews with doctors who worked there, as well as stories in the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore Evening Sun, and Jon Franklin and Alan Doelp’s Shocktrauma.
by having maintenance: Interview with DeAtley.
Within two years: Interviews with various doctors and nurses at GW.
In 1979 the District of Columbia’s: B. D. Colen, “City Names Adult Trauma Unit for Patients Lifted by Copter,” WP, September 1, 1979, p. C2.
Just after 2:35 p.m.: Interviews with Giordano and Gens.
“How are you doing”: Interview with Giordano.
Giordano felt: Interview with Giordano; Giordano narrative; Giordano, “Doctor’s Story: A Delay Could Have Been Fatal,” LAT, April 4, 1981, p. 1.
Without hesitating: Interviews with Gens, Giordano, and Price.
The space was slightly too small: Interviews with Scheele and Dr. Theodore N. Tsangaris, the son of Dr. Neofytos Tsangaris, the hospital’s acting chief of surgery. Tsangaris told his son that Giordano appeared nervous about inserting the tube—not because he was treating the president but because he hadn’t performed this procedure in several years. Neofytos Tsangaris died in 2009.
“Everything is going to be okay,” he said: The Saving of the President.
Looking up from the gurney: Interview with Parr, who said Reagan tried this joke several times in the ER. Koenig also heard him use this line in the trauma bay.
One nurse monitoring: Interview with Koenig.
“I don’t mean to trouble you”: Interview with Mitchell.
When Nancy Reagan: Interview with Opfer; Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 4.
As she approached the ER: Interview with Dr. Arthur Kobrine.
At least one journalist: Interview with Ahearn; another journalist slipped into the hospital when Brady’s wife arrived, according to Tom Shales’s column “TV’s Day of Trauma & Instant Replay,” WP, March 31, 1981, p. C1.
One of Mrs. Reagan’s friends: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 5; interviews with Simpson and Opfer.
As Jacobson stepped away: In describing Brady’s treatment, I relied on interviews with Dr. Jeff Jacobson, Dr. Judith Johnson, and Dr. Paul Colombani, as well as Colombani’s detailed notes and Dickenson, Thumbs Up, pp. 76–84.
was reviewing X-rays: Interview with Kobrine.
“I hope you are not”: Interview with Kobrine.
Shortly after Brady arrived: Giordano narrative.
Pett grabbed an orderly: Interview with Dr. Stephen Pett.
Pett and another doctor: Interview with Pett; Colombani’s notes and interview with Colombani.
“What happened?”: Interview with Colombani.
The bullet was nestled: Interview with Dr. Michael W. Dennis.
Doctors gave Delahanty: Interview with Dennis.
Within fifteen minutes: Testimony of Eddie Myers at an evidence suppression hearing before Hinckley’s trial.
McCarthy had his gun: Dennis McCarthy Secret Service report.
Once in the cell