Deaver recalled: Lou Cannon, “The Day of the Jackal in Washington,” WP, April 5, 1981, p. 1.
Realizing that providing: Deaver transcript.
An assistant picked up: Deaver transcript; the assistant is Margaret Tutwiler; interview with Tutwiler.
“Find Jim,” Deaver said: Deaver transcript.
“Do you know the name”: Deaver, Behind the Scenes, p. 19.
Reagan’s systolic blood pressure: Interview with Koenig.
indicated that he was in shock: There is some debate about whether Reagan was in shock or near shock. Dr. David Gens and Dr. Joseph Giordano, who treated Reagan, believe he was in shock. So do several outside experts whom I interviewed, including Dr. Donald Trunkey and Dr. Howard Champion, two of the country’s most respected trauma surgeons.
Only five or six minutes: Interviews with doctors, nurses, and Secret Service agents.
Joyce Mitchell, the ER doctor: Interview with Mitchell.
“O positive,” Parr replied: Interview with Parr.
One of the first to arrive: Interview with Dr. William O’Neill.
“Who’s the patient?” Price asked: Interview with Dr. G. Wesley Price; Kim Darden, “Highpoint Native First to Examine Reagan,” Highpoint Enterprise, April 6, p. 1A.
As he entered the room: Interview with Price; The Saving of the President.
“I can’t breathe,” the president: G. Wesley Price, “An Eyewitness Account by the First Doctor to Get to the President,” Washingtonian, August 1981.
“I don’t hear very good”: The Saving of the President.
Price noticed: Interview with Price.
about five inches: Interview with Gens.
As he did, Drew Scheele: Interview with Dr. Drew Scheele.
Price nodded: Interview with Price.
“Everything is going to be okay”: Pekkanen, “The Saving of the President.”
Price had treated: Interview with Price.
Ed Meese had been: Craig Fuller memo; Richard Williamson memo; Deaver transcript; interviews with Baker, Tutwiler, and Williamson.
“He’s taken a shot in the back”: Deaver transcript.
“Shit,” said Baker: Interview with Baker.
Baker jotted “P hit/fighting”: Interview with Baker; Barrett, Gambling with History, p. 113.
Lyn Nofziger, one of Reagan’s: Interview with Williamson.
“It looks quite serious,” Baker added: Haig, Caveat, p. 151.
“I’ll be in touch with”: Transcript of Baker’s press conference, March 31, 1981, RRPL. Once at the hospital, Baker and Haig spoke by phone and agreed that the secretary of state would be “the point of contact” for information flowing between the White House and the hospital. There are many conflicting accounts of when and how top White House officials learned about the shooting, and even when Baker and his team left the White House. Some press accounts reported that Haig arrived at the White House before Baker left for the hospital. However, this is impossible. Allen witnessed Meese and Baker leaving for the hospital; he then saw Haig arrive. According to his memoirs, Haig left the State Department at 2:59 p.m.—about the same time that Baker would have seen Reagan being wheeled into surgery.
“You want four units”: Interview with Gens. According to medical records, this was actually four units of “packed red blood cells,” a component of blood. A unit of packed red blood cells is about 320 milliliters. Doctors commonly refer to packed red blood cells as blood.
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 block: Dennis McCarthy, Protecting the President, p. 79.
Spriggs patted: Spriggs testimony. Spriggs’s previous employment provided one of the few lighthearted moments in Hinckley’s trial. Before joining the Secret Service, Spriggs was a defensive back for the Dallas Cowboys professional football team from 1972 to 1974. This fact was elicited by a prosecutor when he asked whether Spriggs had ever been exposed to stressful situations before his career in law enforcement (Spriggs served as a p
olice officer in New Mexico before joining the service in 1976). Vincent Fuller, Hinckley’s lawyer, snapped to attention. “What years did you play for the Dallas Cowboys?” Fuller asked.
“1972 through 1974,” Spriggs said.
“Did you beat the Redskins?”
“Now just a second,” said the judge as the courtroom filled with laughter. Anyone who has lived in Washington will understand the town’s obsession with the Redskins and will appreciate Fuller’s tongue-in-cheek effort to impeach the witness.
Spriggs retreated to a small: Interview with Spriggs.
homicide office was eerily empty: Interview with Myers.
his silver badge clipped to the lapel: FBI photo provided by Myers.
“Watch out for my wrist”: Myers testimony. Hinckley’s wrists were not injured in the arrest.
“I’m not sure”: In writing this section about Hinckley’s questioning by Myers, I relied on interviews with the former detective, his trial testimony, and his extensive testimony at an evidence suppression hearing, as well as an interview of Myers by the prosecution’s psychiatrists that was included in the government psychiatric report.
Myers was floored: Interview with Myers.
10: “My God. The President Was Hit?”
Hospital personnel continued: Interviews with doctors and nurses; review of Secret Service reports. Agents tried—sometimes in vain—to keep away medical students and other onlookers. They grew increasingly aggressive at screening people and once even momentarily prevented Michael Deaver from entering the trauma area, according to a Secret Service report.
blood pressure had risen: Gens tape-recorded narrative; Gens diary.
more than half a liter: Gens diary; Giordano narrative.
Joe Giordano and David Gens: Interviews with Giordano and Gens; Gens diary.
“We better get a chest X-ray”: The Saving of the President.
over a liter of blood: narratives and diaries of various doctors.
more than 15 percent: The average person contains about 5 liters of blood. Blood is about 7 percent of body weight. Reagan weighed 196 pounds, which is 89.1 kg, so his blood volume was about 6.2 liters. Most journalists have used the 5-liter average, falsely inflating Reagan’s estimated blood loss. I used the more precise “7 percent” estimate after speaking to trauma surgeons and reviewing emergency room textbooks and literature. I also consulted with outside experts to arrive at this figure. Adam Myers, a professor of physiology and biophysics at the Georgetown University Medical School, was particularly helpful.
Giordano was running out: Interview with Giordano.
Speaking as much to: The Saving of the President.
Not wanting to stoke panic: Interview with Woody Goldberg.
and he’d long suspected: Interview with Goldberg.
Upon their arrival: Interviews with Goldberg, Allen, and Tutwiler.
His square jaw clenched: Interviews with Tutwiler and Allen.
“How do we do that?”: Interview with Goldberg.
When the White House: Interviews with Goldberg, Allen, and Tutwiler. This conversation has been drawn from Bush’s memoirs and Haig’s memoirs, as well as Ken Khachigian’s detailed handwritten notes of Haig’s end of the conversation, RRPL.
set could potentially listen: In fact, this occurred. Two University of Alabama graduate students—Stewart Stogel and Carl Kappresser—spent the afternoon listening to conversations between Air Force Two and the White House on a shortwave radio set. They even taped the conversations. After a search in 2010, Stogel said he was unable to locate these tapes.
Until now, the vice president’s: Vice President Bush’s briefing book for the trip.
“Are you continuing to”: Interview with Stetson Orchard.
Secret Service agent was getting: Interview with John Magaw, the agent who heard this report over his radio earpiece.
Ed Pollard, who unclipped: Interview with Ed Pollard.
“Oh, no,” said Bush: Interview with Pollard.
“Mr. Vice President”: Haig, Caveat, p. 152. I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for this record from the George Bush Presidential Library. Although it was published in the former secretary of state’s memoir and a subsequent message from Bush to the White House was released by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the National Archives considers this message to be classified.
His first concern, of course: Transcript of interview of Bush aboard Air Force Two by Chase Untermeyer. This record was provided by Untermeyer but is held at the GBPL.
three congressmen: Untermeyer diary entry; trip briefing book. The three members of Congress were Jim Wright, the Democratic House majority leader, and two Texas Republicans, William R. Archer Jr. and James M. Collins.
on a couch and crowded around: Photos from flight, GBPL.
whenever the pilots: Interview with Untermeyer.
“Mr. Reagan was not hit”: ABC News broadcast.
Dr. Benjamin Aaron, head: Interview with Aaron; Aaron reflection; The Saving of the President.
Except for a short nap: Aaron reflection; interviews with Aaron and Dr. Kathleen Cheyney, who assisted Aaron in the earlier surgeries.
Aaron didn’t look: Interview with Aaron; Aaron reflection.
Aaron could see that: Interviews with Giordano and Aaron.
“He’s responding”: The Saving of the President.
1.2 liters: Aaron reflection.
As Aaron surveyed the situation: Interview with Aaron; Aaron reflection; The Saving of the President.
He looked up and exchanged: Interview with Gens.
That meant it: Interview with Aaron.
Since the president was: Interview with Aaron.
Gens asked him what had: Interview with Gens; Gens diary.
Again Gens leaned close: Tape-recorded interview of Gens by John Pekkanen in 1981, which was provided to the author by Gens.
Once the gurney had: Gens diary; interview with Gens; interview with Dr. Bradley Bennett.
X-ray image of Reagan’s: Interviews with Aaron and Dr. David Rockoff; Aaron and Rockoff, “The Shooting of President Reagan: A Radiologic Chronology of His Medical Care,” Radiographics 15, no. 2 (March 1995): 407–18.
Dr. David Rockoff had closely: Interview with Rockoff.
that it was a .38: Interviews with Rockoff, Aaron, and Gens. This is an astounding blunder. A Secret Service agent seized Hinckley’s weapon at the scene and gave it to the FBI, which kept it in a room at the Hilton while authorities collected other evidence and questioned witnesses. So why was there so much confusion about the type of gun Hinckley used? When the shots rang out, a U.S. Park Police motorcycle officer ran to help tackle Hinckley and dropped his .38-caliber revolver on the ground, right next to Brady’s head. He eventually retrieved the revolver but not before the gun was “mistaken for the weapon used” by Hinckley, according to the Treasury report.
Nancy Reagan had been politely: Interview with Opfer; Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 6.
The hospital’s acting chief of surgery: Giordano narrative; interview with Theodore Tsangaris.
For one thing, they hadn’t completed: Interview with Giordano; Giordano narrative.
When Mrs. Reagan entered: Interview with Opfer; Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 6.
Laxalt, beside her, saw a frightened: Laxalt, Nevada’s Paul Laxalt: A Memoir, p. 331.
“Honey,” the president said: Gens diary; Giordano narrative; Lyn Nofziger notes, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Nofziger’s notes were provided by Supriya Wronkiewicz, an archivist at Hoover who graciously spared me a cross-country flight or the expense of hiring a researcher to obtain them.
“Please, don’t try to talk”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 6.
As he considered his options: Interview with Aaron.
“Mr. President, there is a lot”: The Saving of the President.
“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.
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