Warren Commission (06 of 26): Hearings Vol. VI (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (06 of 26): Hearings Vol. VI (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. SPECTER. Yes; will you outline your medical career in brief form
subsequent to that date, please?
Dr. SHAW. I entered private practice, limited to thoracic surgery,
August 1, 1938. I have continuously practiced this specialty in Dallas,
with the exception of the period from June 1942 to December 1945,
when I was a member of the Medical Corps of the Army of the United
States, serving almost all of this period in the European theatre of
operations. I was again absent from Dallas from December 1961 until
June 1963, when I headed the medico team and performed surgery at the
Avicenna Hospital at Kabul, Afghanistan.
Mr. SPECTER. Are you Board certified, Dr. Shaw?
Dr. SHAW. Yes. I am certified by the Board of Thoracic Surgery, date
of certification--1948. At the present time I am professor of thoracic
surgery and chairman of the division of thoracic surgery at the
University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you have occasion to perform any medical care for
President Kennedy on November 22, 1963?
Dr. SHAW. No.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you have occasion to care for Governor Connally?
Dr. SHAW. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you relate the circumstances of your being called in
to care for the Governor, please?
Dr. SHAW. I was returning to Parkland Hospital and the medical school
from a conference I had attended at Woodlawn Hospital, which is
approximately a mile away, when I saw an open limousine going past
the intersection of Industrial Boulevard and Harry Hines Boulevard
under police escort. As soon as traffic had cleared, I proceeded on
to the medical school. On the car radio I heard that the President
had been shot at while riding in the motorcade. Upon entering the
medical school, a medical student came in and joined three other
medical students. He stated that President Kennedy had been brought in
dead on arrival to the emergency room of Parkland Hospital and that
Governor Connally had been shot through the chest. Upon hearing this, I
proceeded immediately to the emergency room of the hospital and arrived
at the emergency room approximately 5 minutes after the President and
Governor Connally had arrived.
Mr. SPECTER. Where did you find Governor Connally at that time, Dr.
Shaw?
Dr. SHAW. I found Governor Connally lying on a stretcher in emergency
room No. 2. In attendance were several men, Dr. James Duke, Dr. David
Mebane, Dr. Giesecke, an anesthesiologist. As emergency measures, the
open wound on the Governor's right chest had been covered with a heavy
dressing and manual pressure was being applied. A drainage tube had
been inserted into the second interspace in the anterior portion of
the right chest and connected to a water-sealed bottle to bring about
partial reexpansion of the collapsed right lung. An intravenous needle
had been inserted into a vein in the left arm and intravenous fluid was
running.
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