All good stuff- except he never was the first to treat JFK. It seems he never actually treated JFK at all.
The first with no doubt is Dr Carrico and the next Dr Perry. I have no idea if Dr Duke ever claimed being the first but the Warren Commission took testimony from those who treated the President and Duke was not listed in Volume VI.
No matter what you may think of the findings of the Commission, it seems entirely plausable that the convening so soon after the event and with the number of witnesses from the hospital and entourage they had a clear idea who was treating the victim.
Exactly. I referred to the book first and just to make sure he wasn’t mistaken went to the testimony of the Warren Commission- not the report.
It took a lot of effort but thanks for the confirmation. I wonder why the myth even began. Duke is placed at the hospital and probably helped the Governor but certainly was not one of the first at the trauma room, nor at the Presidents assistance.
On local news this morning, they said he treated Governor Connally. Red Duke is mostly remembered here for starting Life Flight–helicopters used as ambulances.
Good job chasing it all the way to the big volumes. I have come to rely more and more on Bugliosi’s summary work and tend to stop there unless there’s a really fine detail he doesn’t cover. I don’t believe anyone’s faulted his accuracy yet - not with respect to reality, anyway.
He’s a legendary figure who earned his reputation… but it seems his involvement with the events of 11/22/63 is misreported. Bugliosi carefully lists every doctor and nurse at every station in the two trauma rooms, and he’s not among them.
It’s possible his was a minor/later role and the details are lost in the bigger report or hospital records. But he almost certainly was not “the first to treat” either man.
*"He did his surgical training at Dallas Parkland Hospital, where he was on duty Nov. 22, 1963, when Kennedy and Connally arrived after they were shot.
Accompanying the chief of surgical services, Duke arrived at a trauma room where Kennedy lay when he was told a patient across the hall needed help, too. There, Duke saw a man lying on the medical table, dressed in a dark suit and a bloodied dress shirt.
“I don’t know when I finally realized it was the governor of Texas,” Duke recalled in 2013.
Duke found a serious gunshot wound that needed immediate treatment. He quickly closed the wound and inserted a chest tube, and the governor was rushed into an operating room, where surgery was successfully performed."*
While this is what assassination compulsives will glom onto, Duke is remembered far more in the Houston area for starting Life Flight, establishing the trauma service at Memorial Hermann Hospital and his many years as a surgeon there (I encountered him on the job occasionally; he was a nice guy if not too good with names - I can’t recall any other surgeons who referred to me as “chief” :)).
He also for years did folksy TV reports on medical topics that aired in something like 30 states.
Jackmannii, that is the point I believe. This guy had a great career and was well respected so why does a news report have to tack something spurious onto it?
