Dr. Jenkins. Yes.
Mr. Specter. And will you relate briefly the circumstances surrounding your being called into that case?
Dr. Jenkins. Well, I was in the dining room with other members of the hospital staff when we heard the Chief of Surgery, Dr. Tom Shires, being paged "Stat." This is a rather unusual call, for the Chief of any service to be called "Stat" as this is the emergency call.
Mr. Specter. What does that mean, "Stat"?
Dr. Jenkins. "Stat" means emergency, that's just a code word that has been used for years in medical terms. He was paged twice this way, and one of the surgical residents, Dr. Ronald Jones, answered the phone, thinking something bad must be up and that he would call the Chief of Surgery. I was sitting near the telephone and Dr. Jones immediately came back by with a very anguished look and the color was drained from his face—I'm sure I had that impression, and he said, "The President has been shot and is on his way to the hospital." At the same time we heard the sirens of the ambulance as they turned into the driveway from Harry Hines into the hospital drive, and it was obvious that this was the car coming in because the ambulance sirens usually stop in the street, but these came on clear to the building.
Mr. Specter. That's Harry Hines Boulevard right in front of the hospital?
Dr. Jenkins. Yes; I ran up the stairs to the Anesthesia Department, that's on the second floor—one floor above the dining room, where I was, and notified two members of the Department, the first two I saw, my Chief Associate, Dr. A. H. Giesecke, Jr., and Dr. Jackie Hunt, that the President had been shot and was being brought to the emergency room and for them to bring all the resuscitative equipment we have including an anesthesia machine. The emergency room is set up well, but we are used to working with our own equipment and I asked them to bring it down and I ran down the back stairs, two flights down, and I arrived in the emergency room just after or right behind him being wheeled in, I guess.
Mr. Specter. At about what time did you arrive at the emergency room?
Dr. Jenkins. Oh, this was around 12:30–12:35 to 12:40. I shouldn't be indefinite about this—in our own specialty practice, we watch the clock closely, and there are many things we have to keep up with, but I didn't get that time exactly, I'll admit.
Mr. Specter. Who was present at the time of your arrival in the emergency room, if anyone?