JFK in Trauma Room One: Last moments before his death

[Douglas Caddy]

JFK in Trauma Room One: Last moments before his death

[Chris Newton]

Thanks for that Doug. Quite moving.

[Robert Prudhomme]

It is interesting to note that, at about 4:22 of this interview, Dr. Jenkins describes the insertion of a chest drainage tube into JFK's left chest. The reason he gives for this is, according to Dr. Jenkins, the fact that one doctor had listened to that side of the chest, while Dr. Jenkins was performing artificial respiration with a bag valve mask, and had heard no breath sounds.

As this oration by Dr. Jenkins is obviously many years after the assassination, he can be forgiven a certain degree of confusion but, the fact remains that in his medical report (Appendix VIII of the WCR) Dr. Jenkins clearly states the chest tube was inserted in the RIGHT chest.

"Doctors Charles Baxter, Malcolm Perry, and Robert McClelland arrived at the same time and began a tracheostomy and started the insertion of a right chest tube, since there was also obvious tracheal and chest damage. Doctors Paul Peters and Kemp Clark arrived simultaneously and immediately thereafter assisted respectively with the insertion of the right chest tube and with manual closed chest cardiac compression to assure circulation."

Note also he states there was "obvious chest damage".

From the Warren Commission testimony of Dr. Marion T. Jenkins:

"About this time Drs. Kemp Clark and Paul Peters came in, and Dr. Peters because of the appearance of the right chest, the obvious physical characteristics of a pneumothorax, put in a closed chest drainage chest tube. Because I felt no peripheral pulse and was not aware of any pulse, I reported this to Dr. Clark and he started closed chest cardiac massage."

A pneumothorax is usually an indication of serious damage to a lung, and results in the collapse of that lung. This is why the doctors were unable to hear breath sounds, and elected to insert a drainage tube in the right chest.

While it is likely that JFK was also suffering a haemothorax of the right lung (accumulation of blood and fluid), the most serious condition of the lungs was the pneumothorax. As JFK was lying on his back, the back entrance wound, unknown to the Parkland doctors, was likely sealed by the back being in contact with the table. As the lung was compromised (ruptured) each breath, assisted or otherwise, would be pulled through the rupture in the lung, and the lung would not inflate. Instead, the air would pass into the pleural cavity between the lung and the chest wall and be trapped there, as the lung would flatten out on expiration and not allow the air to be expelled. With each breath, the amount of air in this cavity, with the back wound sealed off, would increase, until the pressure began exerting itself on the heart, major blood vessels and the left lung.

This condition is known as a "tension" pneumothorax and, unless the pressure in the pleural cavity is relieved with a chest tube, this condition is invariably fatal as the function of the other organs of the chest is so badly impaired. The chest tube is connected to a water seal chamber that prevents air returning through the tube to the pleural cavity during inspiration. In the field, first responders use the Asherman Chest Seal to seal off punctures of the chest. It seals off the wound, preventing air from entering the pleural cavity during inspiration (open pneumothorax) but has a one way valve that allows any pressure built up in the pleural cavity (tension pneumothorax) to escape.

Another classic sign of a tension pneumothorax is deviation of the trachea (windpipe) away from the affected lung. Several doctors noted this on JFK when he arrived at Trauma Room One, and I believe this to be one of the "obvious physical characteristics of a pneumothorax" Dr. Jenkins was referring to.

Of course, everyone realizes that the type of damage to the right lung indicated here was contrary to the findings at the autopsy.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Robert Prudhomme

[Robert Prudhomme]

bump

[Michael Crane]

Thanks Doug.

[Mark Knight]

Good explanation, Robert.

[Robert Prudhomme]

Thanks, Mark. When you add to this Jerrol Custer's testimony to the ARRB that JFK's chest organs were removed prior to him taking chest x-rays of JFK's chest (what would be the point after the lungs were removed?) the only conclusion I can draw is that the right lung was badly damaged, the back wound was anything but shallow and we most definitely have been fed a great whopper (in a series of whoppers) about the back wound.

[Tom Neal]

JFK in Trauma Room One: Last moments before his death

Thanks, Mark. When you add to this Jerrol Custer's testimony to the ARRB that JFK's chest organs were removed prior to him taking chest x-rays of JFK's chest (what would be the point after the lungs were removed?) the only conclusion I can draw is that the right lung was badly damaged, the back wound was anything but shallow and we most definitely have been fed a great whopper (in a series of whoppers) about the back wound.

Robert,

This quote from M.T. Jenkins agrees with what you are stating -- until what Specter told him convinced him to change his opinion.

The testimony of Dr. Marion Thomas Jenkins was taken at 5:30 p.m., on March 25, 1964, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Tex., by Mr. Arlen Specter

Mr. SPECTER - Have you ever changed any of your original opinions in connection with the wounds received by President Kennedy?

Dr. JENKINS - I guess so. The first day I had thought because of his pneumothorax, that his wound must have gone--that the one bullet must have traversed his pleura, must have gotten into his lung cavity, his chest cavity, I mean, and from what you say now, I know it did not go that way. I thought it did.

Tom

Edited August 17, 2015 by Tom Neal

[Robert Prudhomme]

Thanks for posting that, Tom.

Arlen Specter must have been very persuasive in his dealings with witnesses. Either that, or Dr. Jenkins was taken aside, prior to giving testimony, and "persuaded" to understand that his professional diagnosis of JFK was mistaken.

The complete irony here is that Dr. Jenkins does not refer to the possibility of a pneumothorax, he refers to it as "his pneumothorax". Specter has managed to convince Jenkins the bullet did not enter the lung, but Jenkins is in no way giving up his diagnosis of a pneumothorax.

Jenkins and the other doctors must have been very confused as to how a bullet that barely pierced the skin of JFK's back could have caused a pneumothorax in JFK's right lung. Even after the entrance wound was moved up to the level of C7/T1 and the bullet picked up enough speed to make it through JFK's neck, and through Connally, he must have wondered how a bullet that never struck any bone in JFK could have induced a pneumothorax in his right lung.

[Pat Speer]

Thanks, Mark. When you add to this Jerrol Custer's testimony to the ARRB that JFK's chest organs were removed prior to him taking chest x-rays of JFK's chest (what would be the point after the lungs were removed?) the only conclusion I can draw is that the right lung was badly damaged, the back wound was anything but shallow and we most definitely have been fed a great whopper (in a series of whoppers) about the back wound.

The x-rays were analyzed for the HSCA by two radiologists. They agreed that there were two x-rays of the chest, one taken at the beginning of the autopsy, and one taken later, after the lungs had been removed. This supported the official story that x-rays were taken at the beginning of the autopsy, and then taken again after Finck arrived and was told they couldn't find the bullet which had created the back wound.

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol7/html/HSCA_Vol7_0114b.htm

Now, no expert has ever disputed that these x-rays are of Kennedy, and that the first of these shows his lungs still in the body. You can even view this x-ray in the HSCA's exhibits and see for yourself.

So, in short, there's nothing mysterious about Custer's testimony. The question is not "Were they hiding damage done to the lungs?" as you would like us to believe, but "Why didn't the bullet creating the back wound enter the body?"

[Robert Prudhomme]

No, Pat, the question is, why did Jerrol Custer tell the ARRB that the chest organs were removed prior to him taking x-rays of the chest?

[Robert Prudhomme]

Jerrol Custer stated, in his 1997 deposition to the ARRB, that upon his arrival to take his first x-rays, the "Y" incision had been made on JFK's corpse, and most of the organs had been removed.

[Pat Speer]

Jerrol Custer stated, in his 1997 deposition to the ARRB, that upon his arrival to take his first x-rays, the "Y" incision had been made on JFK's corpse, and most of the organs had been removed.

Yeah, but you're cherry-picking. Custer's co-worker, Reed, told the ARRB they took x-rays before any incision was made. This is in line with what most every other witness remembered.

And not only that. Custer himself identified x-ray number 9 as an x-ray he'd taken, and acknowledged that the heart and lungs are apparent on the x-ray.

He had thereby changed his testimony.

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/Custer_10-28-97/html/Custer_0015a.htm

[Martin Hay]

Jerrol Custer is not someone on whom I would rely too heavily. His ARRB testimony was frequently at odds with the known facts. For example, there is absolutely no dispute about the fact that a tracheotomy was performed on JFK at Parkland Hospital, and yet...

GUNN: Did you ever see a wound on the front of President Kennedy's throat or the anterior of the throat?

CUSTER: Yes, I did.

GUNN: Could you describe the wound that you observed?

CUSTER: A typical bullet hole.

GUNN: How large was it?

CUSTER: I would estimate, a little bigger than my little finger in dimension, across circumference - or diameter.

GUNN: Okay. So, there was not a long incision or cut on the throat that you observed; is that correct?

CUSTER: Not at that time, I didn't.

Cleary the passage of more than 30 years had diminished the reliability of Custer's recollections.

Which is to be expected.

And it proves that the whole "You wouldn't forget something like JFK's autopsy" argument is total nonsense.

Human memory is easily influenced and alters over time.

[Douglas Caddy]

The Parkland Doctors - John F. Kennedy

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-parkland-doctors-john-f-kennedy#/story