Rawhide Down_ The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan - Del Quentin Wilber [133]
“Whatever you think”: Interview with Aaron.
Even so, Giordano: Interviews with Giordano and Gens.
Aaron kept his doubts: Interview with Aaron.
As Gens prepared: Interview with Gens; Gens tape-recorded interview with Pekkanen, 1981.
11: Operating Room 2
At 2:57: Gens’s handwritten notes that he prepared for Reagan’s discharge summary; the operating room circulating record notes that Reagan arrived in OR 2 at 3:02 p.m. Many other accounts in newspapers and memoirs provide wildly inaccurate information about the time Reagan spent in the ER and the OR. Even doctors who participated in Reagan’s care got it wrong when writing about the day. Aaron, who has Reagan’s complete medical file in his possession, confirmed the authenticity of the records I obtained from other sources.
A Secret Service agent had already: Trainor Secret Service report; interviews with Giordano, Gens, and DeAtley about what route the procession took to the OR.
Ben Aaron had informed: Interview with Aaron; Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 6; Deaver transcript, which provides the basis for the dialogue between Aaron, Mrs. Reagan, and Deaver. Aaron confirmed it.
clasped his left hand: Gens diary.
took his place at Reagan’s: Interview with Edelstein; The Saving of the President. Edelstein had arrived at home with his wife and their newborn son just an hour or so before his pager went off and he learned the president was in his emergency room. He then raced to the hospital.
“Watch your legs”: Gens diary.
might be bleeding to death: Speakes, Speaking Out, p. 10.
Reagan spotted: Interview with Baker; Nofziger notes.
“I love you”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 6; interview with Gens.
Only a few minutes: Interview with Kobrine.
“You have to save him”: Interviews with Kobrine and Sarah Brady.
“God damn it, I told”: Interview with Kobrine.
Ben Aaron adjusted: Interview with Aaron; The Saving of the President.
“I just put a chest tube”: Interviews with Dr. Michael A. Manganiello and Giordano.
Parr had put his scrubs: Interviews with Parr, other Secret Service agents, and various doctors and nurses.
Parr noticed a windowed observation deck: Timothy Burns Secret Service report.
A nurse squeezed: The Saving of the President.
“We’re going to be putting”: Interview with Lichtman.
“I hope you are all Republicans”: Interviews with Giordano, Aaron, and Gens.
An ophthalmologist was summoned: Interview with Manganiello; Gens notes.
Lichtman began the: Interview with Lichtman.
just after 3:08 p.m.: OR circulating record.
An hour earlier, Richard Allen: Interview with Allen; Allen notes.
The complex had been built: Interview with Michael K. Bohn, former director of the Situation Room, and author of Nerve Center: Inside the White House Situation Room. The Situation Room is technically in the White House basement but has windows that look out on the lawn between the West Wing and the Old Executive Office Building.
no other televisions or even a phone: Allen had at least one secure telephone installed in the room as the day wore on.
At about 3:15 p.m., Allen: Allen notes; Allen brought a personal tape recorder into the room and began recording at 3:24 p.m.
the hospital’s phone lines: Interviews of participants and Secret Service reports; Secret Service agent Patrick Miller, a supervisor in the Washington field office, told inspectors that agents encountered “significant problems … with telephone and radio communications.” The “telephones available at the hospital were overburdened to the extent that they were virtually useless on many occasions,” the report said. “He in fact recalls having attempted to use the phone where there was no dial tone. The phones appeared to be dead.” As the day wore on, communications improved, especially between the Situation Room and a command post established at the hospital.
had heard from Jim Baker: According to Allen’s notes, Baker called at 3:17 p.m. That was more than fifteen minutes after Reagan was taken to the operating room but still nine minutes before the