Mr. Specter. Who performed the tracheotomy?
Dr. Baxter. Dr. Perry and myself, with the assistance of Dr. McClelland, and I believe that's all—there may have been one more person that held the retractor.
Mr. Specter. What else, if anything, did you do for President Kennedy at that time?
Dr. Baxter. During the tracheotomy, I helped with the insertion of a right anterior chest tube, and then helped Dr. Perry complete the tracheotomy. At that point none of us could hear a heartbeat present. Apparently this had ceased during the tracheotomy and the chest tube placement.
We then gave him or Dr. Perry and Dr. Clark alternated giving him closed chest cardiac massage only until we could get a cardioscope hooked up to tell us if there were any detectible heartbeat electrically present, at least, and there was none, and we discussed at that moment whether we should open the chest to attempt to revive him, while the closed chest massage was going on, and we had an opportunity to look at his head wound then and saw that the damage was beyond hope, that is, in a word—literally the right side of his head had been blown off. With this and the observation that the cerebellum was present—a large quantity of brain was present on the cart, well—we felt that such an additional heroic attempt was not warranted, and we did not pronounce him dead but ceased our efforts, and awaited the priest and last rites before we pronounced him dead.
Mr. Specter. Did the priest then arrive to perform the last rites?
Dr. Baxter. Yes.
Mr. Specter. At what time was he pronounced dead?
Dr. Baxter. As I recall, it was 1:08, I'm not sure, it may have been that that was Oswald.
Mr. Specter. But it was approximately 1 o'clock? Then, could the time of death be fixed with any precision?