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
Dr. AKIN. I was notified while I was on duty in the operating suite of
the hospital that anesthesia assistance was needed in the emergency
room. President Kennedy supposedly had been shot and had been brought
to the emergency room, and I immediately went down the back elevator
to the emergency room to see if I could be of assistance, and when I
walked in, a tracheotomy was being performed. President Kennedy still
had an endotracheal tube, an oro-tracheal tube in place, and the
connector from this to the Bird respirator was removed. The anesthesia
machine had been simultaneously rolled into the room and Dr. Jenkins
connected the anesthesia machine to the oro-tracheal tube and it stayed
there for a brief period, until the tracheotomy tube was placed in the
tracheotomy, at which time I connected the breathing tubes from the
anesthesia machine to the tracheotomy and held this in place while Dr.
Jenkins controlled the ventilation with 100-percent oxygen from the
anesthesia machine.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you assist Dr. Jenkins then in his work?
Dr. AKIN. Only insofar as I held the endotracheal connector in place
into the tracheotomy tube.
Mr. SPECTER. What doctors in addition to Dr. Jenkins then were present,
if any, at the time of your arrival?
Dr. AKIN. You mean everybody in the room? I don't know that I can name
all of them.
Mr. SPECTER. Name as many as you can, if you will, please?
Dr. AKIN. There was Dr. Jenkins, there was myself for a brief period,
there was Dr. Giesecke, Dr. Jackie Hunt--they left shortly after
arriving. I heard later that they had gone across the hall to Governor
Connally's room to assist him; Dr. Malcolm Perry, Dr. Charles Baxter,
Dr. Kemp Clark, Dr. Bob McClelland, Dr. James Carrico, Dr. Ron Jones,
was there. I think, shortly after I arrived, and Dr. Fouad Bashour
came in from cardiology; Dr. Don Seldin walked in briefly, I can't
remember the team that worked on the cutdowns on the legs--I can't
remember that. This is sort of hazy, because it was a couple of days
later we went through the same business over again and I am liable to
say that there was somebody there that worked on Kennedy that actually
had worked on Oswald, because I was on the Oswald mess too. This is all
that I remember were positively there. I remember their being there,
but there were others that I am not sure of.
Mr. SPECTER. What did you observe as to the President's condition?
Dr. AKIN. He looked moribund in my medical judgment.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you observe any wounds on him at the time you first
saw him?
Dr. AKIN. There was a midline neck wound below the level of the
cricoid cartilage, about 1 to 1.5 cm. in diameter, the lower part of
this had been cut across when I saw the wound, it had been cut across
with a knife in the performance of the tracheotomy. The back of the
right occipitalparietal portion of his head was shattered, with brain
substance extruding.
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