• Font Size    
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Parkland Dr. Who Treated JFK Talks to CBS 11

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   
Nov 17, 2008 9:32 pm US/Central

Parkland Dr. Who Treated JFK Talks to CBS 11

CBS 11 is looking back at the JFK tragedy in Dallas 45 years ago. This week, we will spotlight people who were there or played a role in the subsequent days.

Reporting
Jay Gormley
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― He is perhaps best known for leading a team of surgeons that separated conjoined Egyptian twins in 2003. But Dr. Kenneth Salyer has another place in history.

"I had no idea that my hero that I voted for would be a patient who I would be taking care of," he said.

On Nov. 22, 1963, Dr. Salyer was a 27-year-old resident at Parkland Hospital when a bloody and barely alive President John F. Kennedy was wheeled into the emergency room.

"The whole side of his head was gone. It was a flap of tissue," he recalled recently.

Salyer was the third person to walk into the trauma room.

"We tried to put a tube into this throat, but couldn't get past his neck wound. So the neck wound was expanded and the tube was placed down into his trachea," he explained.

The next step was to remove President Kennedy's back brace so the doctors could massage his heart to keep him alive.

"We worked with him for a long time, giving him every benefit of the doubt that we could bring him back," Salyer said.

After nearly an hour, the doctors realized it was losing battle.

Salyer says a priest finally gave JFK his last rites.

The young resident then watched Jacqueline Kennedy -- still in the same blood-splattered dress -- approach her dead husband.

"Jacqueline came over to his right side and leaned over him and did a little ring ceremony of her own," he recalled.

Salyer says he was touched by the moment. His hero was now dead and his life was forever changed.

"I think it made me live every moment to the maximum and gave me a sense of wanting to give back to society."

Forty-five years later, Salyer continues to practice. In 2003, he was the primary surgeon who worked to separate conjoined twins after a 33-hour surgery.  Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim returned to Egypt in November 2005.

Salyer will speak at a public event Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dealey Plaza.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

45 Years Later: A Look Back At JFK Assassination

You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

Dallas / Fort Worth Local News

Top News Stories

© MMIX, CBS Stations Group of Texas L.P. All Rights Reserved.