The President's Been Shot (page 2 of 5)

"We're All Republicans Today"

At 3:10 p.m., the White House press office released a short statement saying that contrary to earlier reports, the President had been shot but was in stable condition. Haig ordered the State Department to prepare a cable for United States ambassadors around the world: "Flash. Please deliver following message. The government in Washington continues to carry out its obligations to its people and its allies."

A Secret Service man then called Treasury Secretary Donald Regan out of the room. Regan came back to say that the gunman was a 25-year-old white man from Colorado named John W. Hinckley, Jr. He had a Texas Tech student identification card in his wallet. "This is apt to be a loner," he added.

3:24 p.m.
At GW, someone was asking the President for permission to operate, to stop the internal bleeding, to find the bullet. There was no exit wound.

Reagan was wheeled into the OR at 3:24 p.m. Senior surgeon Benjamin Aaron, GW's chief of thoracic surgery, widened the incision under the President's armpit, then inserted another catheter. The bullet, a hollow .22 caliber slug meant to explode in the body, was flattened like a dime, apparently because it had ricocheted off the bulletproof Presidential limo before hitting one of Reagan's ribs and being redirected. It was an inch behind the heart. Aaron drew it out. The chest cavity was filled with blood. Reagan had lost almost half the blood in his body, four or five pints. He was dying, kept alive by transfusions of blood and other fluids. Aaron decided on immediate surgery. Reagan opened his eyes as the surgeons made ready and said, "I hope you're a Republican."

Joseph Giordano, chief of GW's trauma unit, was not. He said, "Mr. President, we're all Republicans today."

At the White House, more people crowded into the situation room. There, the Secretary of State had taken charge. The highest officials in the land were getting their information just as ordinary Americans were, by watching TV. They were arguing in polite but tense terms about what should happen before the Vice President returned to Washington. Haig and Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, were in quiet confrontation over the ready status of U.S. military forces around the world, when David Gergen, communications director, interrupted, "Al, a quick question. We need some sense, better sense of where the President is. Is he under sedation now?"

"He's not on the operating table," Haig replied.

"He is on the operating table!" Gergen said.

"So the ..." Haig began, "the helm is right here. And that means right in this chair for now, constitutionally, until the Vice President gets here."

This was not correct. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 established the chain of command as first the Vice President, then the Speaker of the House and the president pro tem of the Senate -- all elected officials -- followed by members of the Cabinet in the order their departments had been established, beginning with State. Military command authority, however, went from the President, to the Vice President, then to the Secretary of Defense.

Two miles away, in the Capitol, there were just two Senators on the floor of the Senate, Republican Majority Leader Howard Baker of Tennessee and Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, a Democrat. Baker received word of the shooting and announced it, saying that the President was apparently in good shape. Moynihan rose to say, "I was glad to hear how well the President is recovering, but there's something larger at stake. I do not know that in our time we have seen so great a display. It makes us proud of our President."

Reagan, though, was still on the operating table, fighting for his life.

6:20 p.m.
The surgery was now finished. Still under anesthesia and on a respirator, the President remained under close observation. Ten minutes later, Air Force Two landed at Andrews Air Force Base and taxied into a hangar. Bush was driven home. Then he came back out into another car and headed for the White House. "The more normal things are, the better," he said.

The President began to regain consciousness at 7:30 p.m. A half-hour later, he was given morphine for chest pain. At one point he asked whether the shooter had been caught: "Why did he do it? What's his beef?"

As he began to talk, the first official medical briefing was being held at GW. After meeting with Lyn Nofziger, Dr. Dennis O'Leary, the dean of clinical affairs, said with authority, "The President was alert and awake, with stable vital signs. He was at no time in serious danger."

Other physicians felt that the performance was more politics than medicine. Reagan was being pumped with painkilling drugs that were also scrambling his brain. In addition to morphine, codeine, Demerol and Valium, the anesthesia, Pentothal, would be metabolized over a week or so.

The Vice President came into the press briefing room at 8:20 p.m. to say, "I can reassure this nation that the government is functioning fully." When he left, Speakes and Gergen took questions. One reporter asked, "What precautions are being taken that Haig is not going to try a coup d'état?"

Meanwhile, Reagan was writing notes on pink paper with a felt-tipped pen. One read, "All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia" -- an old line from comedian W. C. Fields when he was asked what he wanted on his gravestone.

Soon after midnight, Dr. O'Leary had another statement: "The President is obviously able to function. He can probably put in a full-time day today as long as he gets a nap this afternoon."

The President was awake and in pain most of the night. At 2:15 a.m., after being given more morphine, he was taken off the respirator, but was still unable to speak because of the endotracheal tube in his throat. Then, when Reagan heard a technician say, "This is it," he became agitated.

He scrawled, "What does he mean?"

A nurse said it meant they were ready to remove the tube. That was at 2:50 a.m.

One of the next notes from Reagan said, "Where am I?"

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