The Draping of President Kennedy

https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.com/2013/09/parkland-hospital-day-kennedy-died/#jp-carousel-45011

Transcription from Recording of Assassination Records Review Board Interview of Nurse Audrey Bell, 1998

Q. … So if someone asked you to describe the President's anterior neck wound, say, before the tracheostomy, would you be able to do that from your own independent recollection?

A. No. Because they were, the tray was there, and they were prepping around, and draping. You know, these things happen so quickly. ... And he had three cut downs. And a chest tube had been intubated. He had been prepped, and draped, and ready for the surgeons to make. So when you, your talking about a time span when things, everybody just works in concert. And it moved very, very rapidly.

Email from Dr. Robert McClelland to Davy Jones

June 17, 2010

I arrived in Trauma Room I at Parkland immediately after "prepping" of the President's neck was completed by Dr. Perry. This prepping simply consisted of using Ioprep solution to clean the area around the neck wound which was at the collar level in the midline of the neck.

Telephone Interview of Dr. Ronald Jones by Davy JonesFeb. 4, 2010

I then described to Dr. Ronald Jones that Nurse Audrey Bell stated that when she entered the room, the President was being “draped.” I asked if he remembers the President being draped. He said he did not remember Audrey Bell being present when he was in the room. He said that he did not remember that the President had any extensive draping on his body. At most “there may have been a small amount” of draping around the neck wound.

Dr. Charles Crenshaw (excerpt from Conspiracy of Silence, 1992)Usually, trauma victims are stripped of all clothing so that an injury will not be overlooked. But no one ever attempted to remove the President’s briefs. I think it was out of respect for the man, the dignified position he held… “https://www.krusch.com/books/kennedy/Conspiracy_Of_Silence.pdf

“Use a single fenestrated drape or multiple

folded drapes around the wound site.”

“Definition. Fenestrated Sheets. Drapesheet that has an opening that is placed to expose the anatomic area where the incision will be made. Sheet is long enough to cover the anesthesia screen and extend down over the foot of the OR bed. Usually marked to show direction in which to be unfolded.”https://www.flashcardmachine.com/surgical-technology-draping.html

https://clinicalgate.com/principles-of-wound-management/

https://aneskey.com/methods-of-wound-closure/

“The skin surrounding the wound

is prepared with a povidone-iodine

solution and covered with sterile

drapes. A clear plastic drape

(Steri-Drape, 3M Corporation) can

be used to provide a sterile field

and a limited view of the area

surrounding the wound.”

Current Internet Images Concerning Wound “Prepping” and “Draping”

Dr. Robert McClelland on Trauma Room 1 ‘Drape Screen’ at JFK’s Face/Throat

(excerpted from May 28, 2009 telephone interview with Davy Jones, Univ. of Ky)

McClelland. I could look down into … I know it’s been said that I could not see, where I was

standing. That’s a misapprehension by people where I was standing. I was standing directly

in the back, in the middle part of the back of the stretcher, and his head was down far enough

on the stretcher, that, you know, I was leaning over a screen that was covering his face,

helping to do a tracheostomy by holding a retractor. I was leaning over, and holding that

retractor, but it was long enough I could still look down directly into that large head wound, that

involved not only the back, but the top and the back of his head. The so-called temporal

occipital part of the right side of his head. So I could easily look into that large wound and did

so from a distance of about 18-20 inches for the 10 or 12 minutes that I stood there. So I had

a very good look down into it all the time.

McClelland: So that’s what I did, I took the retractor and immediately walked around to the top

of the stretcher, and stood there and leaned over the screen to hold that retractor and was

standing as I said right in the middle of the stretcher looking right down into the wound, the

President’s wound.

Jones: Ok, when you said that there was a screen over his face … this screen was not

blocking the view of the side of the head?

McClelland: Oh, no, it was just kind of a metal rod that fits over the sides of the stretcher and

then can be angled at various angles. And then when you drape, like for a tracheostomy, you

put a drape, a cloth drape over that rod and it holds the drape in place. But it didn’t completely

cover his face, it obscured his face somewhat, but it didn’t obscure the top of his head or the

back of his head.

https://drexel.edu/medicine/academics/residencies-and-fellowships/anesthesiology-residency/clinical-rotations/

https://www.universalmedicalinc.com/face-shield-drape-screen.html

Current Internet Images of Various Placement and Sizes

of “Drape Screen” at Head/Throat During Surgery

https://www.mpacorn.com/articles/doctors-train-in-simulated-emergency-room/

http://www.dhoothospital.com/healthcare/surgery/index.php

http://www.pinnacledrapes.com/urology-drapes.html

http://time.com/2901422/doctors-drunk-high/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiothoracic_surgery

http://www3.gehealthcare.com.au/en-au/products/categories/anaesthesia_delivery

http://time.com/2901422/doctors-drunk-high/

http://time.com/2901422/doctors-drunk-high/

“1950S Hospital Operating Room Surgery In Progress Men Women Doctors Nurses Wearing Sterile Surgical Masks Caps Gowns” https://www.alamy.de/stockfoto-1950er-jahre-krankenhaus-op-operation-in-progress-manner-frauen-arzte-krankenschwestern-tragen-sterile-op-masken-mutzen-kleider-72597280.html

History of St. Cloud Hospital – 1950s – 1960shttps://www.centracare.com/locations/st-cloud-hospital/history/

“In the 1950s and early 1960s, many operations at the CC involved cancer, cardiac, and neurosurgical procedures. Pictured here is an OR photo from the early days of the Clinical Center.”

https://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/about/news/newsletter/2013/jul2013/newsletter.html

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/43628690110736265

“Barnes Hospital operating room in 1951.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appendectomy#/media/File:Young_nurses_assist_at_an_appendectomy_8b07788v.jpg

•File:Young nurses assist at an appendectomy 8b07788v.jpg•Created: 1 November 1942

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1097&bih=499&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=jq7AW8fVJcb4zgLTtKaoBQ&q=%22cardiothoracic+surgery%22+archives+history&oq=%22cardiothoracic+surgery%22+archives+history&gs_l=img.3...16478484.16488943..16489194...0.0..0.138.1845.20j3......1....1..gws-wiz-img.wPjik4eRR0w#imgrc=uEJCEcTk74zQOM:&spf=1539370745258

“Montefiore Hospital operating theater”

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3AMSP286_B003_F008_I01/from_search/-5

Fig. 2.9 Left to right, different varieties of handheld retractors. (a) Harrington or Sweetheart retractor , (b) Deaver, (c) Kelly retractor, (d) Eastman, (e) Richardson retractor, (f) Richardson-Eastman retractor, (g) S-retractor, (h) Cushing vein retractor, (i) Senn retractor, (j) Rake retractor, (k) Army-Navy

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-75656-1_2

“As I walked around the stretcher, Dr. Perry … handed me what they call an Army-Navy

retractor. Just kind of a simple little piece of metal that’s maybe about 10 inches long,

that’s bent in an L-shape on both ends.”

Dr. Robert McClelland on the ‘Army-Navy Retractor’

(excerpted from May 28, 2009 telephone interview with Davy Jones, Univ. of Ky)

By Davy JonesUniversity of Kentucky

College of MedicineNov. 11, 2018