President Reagan Shooting

From GWUEncyc

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"At the Washington Hilton, the president is brusquely thrown onto the floor of his limousine. A cavalcade, sirens screaming, tears through midday traffic to GW's emergency room." At 2:30 in the afternoon of March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan was hit by a would-be assassin's bullet. Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delehanty were also seriously wounded. The Secret Service immediately called the GW University Medical Center through a hotline from the White House communications center and alerted the hospital of the President's imminent arrival.

Within only a few minutes, the wounded Commander-in-Chief arrived at the GW emergency room; the trauma team was ready for him. "A determined Reagan insists on walking in under his own steam, only to collapse at the threshold. His knees buckle and he is carried to the first of several staging points: trauma unit, operating theater, recovery room."

The bullet had penetrated Reagan's torso, "traversed about three inches of the chest wall and then ricocheted off the seventh rib into the left lower lobe of the lung and moved about three inches into the lung substance itself." The .22 slug came to a stop only one inch from the President's heart.

"X-rays disclose the position of the bullet. Copious bleeding requires constant blood checks and transfusions. A tube is inserted to relieve pressure and remove blood from the damaged lung. Preparations for surgery are punctuated by gallows humor between Reagan and staff."

Reagan was wheeled into an operating room for surgery in less than half an hour of his arrival at the hospital. All of the doctors who treated Reagan were faculty members of the GW University Medical Center; in fact, the President's personal physician had previously held a position of Lecturer at the GW University Medical Center and was personal friends with the emergency room surgeons.

Dr. Benjamin Aaron, who removed the bullet, described Reagan's condition. "The president had a major gunshot wound injury; he'd lost a lot of blood. It's no small thing to have a bullet penetrate your chest and tear up the lower lobe of the lung. It's a fairly severe injury."

Despite the seriousness of the damage, and the extreme importance of the patient, Dean of Medicine Dennis O'Leary called the operation "a relatively simple procedure." The surgery to remove the bullet and to stop the bleeding lasted approximately 80 minutes. After a brief bout of fever, the President's speedy recovery signaled the complete success of the treatment.

All of Reagan's doctor's agreed that he had been lucky to have had prompt care from the excellent facilities at the GW University Medical Center. "Had the president been wounded at some other location and driven to a more distant hospital or one without a trauma team, it is questionable whether he'd [have lived]. The truth is that he had lost three pints of blood in the eight minutes it took the Secret Service to drive him to the hospital, and there was danger of his going into shock."

Reagan's convalescence in the hospital lasted twelve days. Some presidential staff members considered transferring him to Bethesda, but Reagan himself insisted on staying at GW. Upon his departure, the President issued the following statement: "As my stay at The George Washington University Hospital reaches its end, I wish to express my deep and heartfelt appreciation to all who have contributed to my care. The entire staff at the hospital contributed to my comfort and recovery, and I will always remember their special efforts on my behalf. I look forward, of course, to returning to the White House, and I return with a new respect for the men and women who serve in the medical profession and with tremendous gratitude for their dedication, professionalism, and genuine concern for their fellow man. They represent the best of America, and I am proud to know them. . . . You people make it very easy to contract 'hospitalitis.' From the time we came here in confusion until now you have made us feel welcome. God bless you all!"

During the President's stay, the Secret Service established tight security throughout the hospital. Only individuals with special identification pins could access the fourth floor, where Reagan was recovering. Even other doctors and nurses within the hospital did not know all of the details about Reagan's condition; they attentively listened to the radio for updates like everyone else. "The emergency room of the hospital was virtually closed down, and several times ambulances with sirens wailing and lights flashing sped past the emergency entrance re-routed to another hospital." The staff tried their best to follow the usual routine, although the situation was "very tense, very quiet, very serious."

The deluge of publicity, however, made such efforts almost impossible. "Life with the world's most famous medical patient is hardly routine, but G.W. hospital officials [tried] to minimize the disruptions to other patients in the wake of the shooting of President Reagan." A long line of illustrious well-wishers visited the President. "It's a little exciting" said Kathy Lebiednik, a special procedures X-ray technologist. "You see all the celebrities. We've been just as busy and served just as many patients as we always do, but it is exciting."

The ubiquitous Secret Service agents, dressed in suits and keeping vigilant guard at every corner, stood out amongst the hospital personnel clothed in lab coats and surgical scrubs. After almost two weeks, as excitement and urgency wore off, the hospital staff began to grow weary of the presence of such heavy and intrusive security. According to Nurse Jan Cripanuk, "The Secret Service guys are still on the floor. They're trying really hard to be nice. And they are nice. But it's enough already!"

"While it would be untrue to claim that the institution’s day-to-day procedures were totally unaffected by the President’s hospitalization, it is a fact that the entire staff was able to adapt to changing circumstances and undertake extra efforts to insure that the quality of care for our other patients did not suffer as a result of the President's hospital stay." During the President's stay the GW University Medical Center operated at 91% capacity, only slightly less than its usual occupancy rate of 95%.

Months after the media circus surrounding Reagan's treatment at the GW University Medical Center had faded, another patient continued a miraculous, awe-inspiring recovery. White House Press Secretary James Brady, in critical condition after suffering a gunshot to the head, was not expected to survive the assassination attempt. After receiving top-notch care at the GW University Medical Center, James Brady not only survived but overcame his injuries to become a marvel of modern science and an inspiration to many.

Despite the severity of his wound, the trauma team had stabilized Brady's condition within ten minutes of his arrival. "The routine things happened in quick succession: An intravenous line was inserted in his left forearm, a Foley catheter into his urinary tract, arterial blood was sampled for oxygen and carbon-dioxide concentrations and acid-base balance, and venous blood was taken for typing and a multitude of base-line laboratory tests. . . . His rapid, shallow breathing necessitated the insertion of an endotracheal tube, a clear, soft, plastic tube about the size of a felt-tip pen that goes down the windpipe, or trachea."

"X-rays showed bullet and bone fragments in both sides of the brain, which continued to swell despite medication." Brady suffered injuries so considerable that he wasn't expected to survive. In fact, Dan Rather of CBS news prematurely reported that Brady had died.

"I decided I had to do everything that a doctor could do to save him," said Arthur Kobrine "and that meant aggressive surgery." Brady was on the operating table less than an hour after the shooting.

"Peeling back the scalp, Kobrine found the bullet hole through the skull. Drilling and sawing the skull to expose the brain, Kobrine went to work removing bullet shards, then suctioned out blood, dead tissue, and bone fragments from deep in the brain."

The surgery, a complete success, lasted six hours. Brady began talking a few days later and took his first steps 113 days after the shooting. He spent his nine months of rehabilitation at GWU University Medical Center. Time magazine may have declared Lech Walesa as the Man of Year for 1981, but the Chicago Tribune called Arthur Kobrine the "unsung Man of the Year" for his masterful treatment of Brady.

The Reagan shooting remains an important event in the history of George Washington University. To commemorate the first anniversary of Reagan's recovery, the GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences held a reenactment, "The Saving of the President." The recreation of the event was so realistic that many members of the trauma and surgical teams expressed a sense of deja vu.

On the tenth anniversary of the shooting, the Vice President of Medical Affairs, L. Thompson Bowles, could look back at the event and feel proud of the hospital's performance. "The care given to the president beginning March 30, 1981, and that we provided to his press secretary, Jim Brady, and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy is routine and common by GW standards."

Document Information

Images: 3
Photographic Credit: From Strength to Strength; RG0044/022-0005 University Relations
Author or Source: RG0007/Medical Center; RG0045/Medical Center Public Relations
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: April 6, 2007
Prepared by: Evan Laney, Graduate Student Assistant

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