PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL served as the destination for the mortally wounded President Kennedy, where emergency medical staff prepared trauma rooms and assembled a team of physicians for emergency treatment.
The Race to the Hospital
The Presidential motorcade raced approximately 4 miles to Parkland Memorial Hospital, led by Chief of Police Curry and police motorcyclists. Curry radioed ahead to have the hospital stand by, and the limousine arrived at the emergency entrance at about 12:35 p.m. at speeds estimated up to 70 or 80 miles per hour down the Stemmons Freeway and Harry Hines Boulevard. Twelve doctors, including surgeons, neurologists, anesthesiologists, and specialists, rushed to the emergency area where trauma rooms 1 and 2 had been prepared. Governor Connally, who had regained consciousness upon arrival, was taken to trauma room 2, while President Kennedy, cradled by Mrs. Kennedy, was lifted onto a stretcher and pushed into trauma room 1.
Treatment of President Kennedy
Dr. Charles J. Carrico, a resident in general surgery, was the first physician to see the President, noting two wounds: a small bullet wound in the front lower neck and an extensive head wound with missing skull, shredded brain tissue, and slow oozing blood. Dr. Malcolm O. Perry arrived and performed a tracheotomy requiring 3 to 5 minutes, while Drs. Carrico and Ronald Jones performed cutdowns on the President’s right leg and left arm for fluid infusion, and Dr. Carrico administered hydrocortisone for adrenal insufficiency. Drs. Paul C. Peters and Charles R. Baxter inserted chest tubes to drain blood and air from the chest cavity. Doctors Bashour, Jenkins, and Giesecke joined resuscitation efforts, maintaining peripheral circulation and detecting some electrical cardiac activity. Dr. William Kemp Clark, who most closely observed the head wound, described a large, gaping wound in the right rear of the head with substantial brain tissue damage, noting that a small bullet hole discovered during autopsy could have been hidden in blood and hair.
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