Dental Tribune U.S. Edition

Dental Tribune U.S. Edition | December 2013 A3 Ad Publisher & Chairman Torsten Oemus t.oemus@dental-tribune.com President & Chief exeCutive OffiCer Eric Seid e.seid@dental-tribune.com GrOuP editOr Kristine Colker k.colker@dental-tribune.com editOr in Chief dental tribune Dr. David L. Hoexter feedback@dental-tribune.com manaGinG editOr u.s. and Canada editiOns Robert Selleck r.selleck@dental-tribune.com manaGinG editOr Fred Michmershuizen f.michmershuizen@dental-tribune.com manaGinG editOr Sierra Rendon s.rendon@dental-tribune.com PrOduCt/aCCOunt manaGer Jan Agostaro j.agostaro@dental-tribune.com marketinG direCtOr Anna Kataoka-Wlodarczyk a.wlodarczyk@dental-tribune.com eduCatiOn direCtOr Christiane Ferret c.ferret@dtstudyclub.com aCCOuntinG COOrdinatOr Nirmala Singh n.singh@dental-tribune.com Tribune America, LLC 116 West 23rd St., Ste. #500 New York, N.Y. 10011 (212) 244-7181 Published by Tribune America © 2013 Tribune America, LLC All rights reserved. Dental Tribune strives to maintain the utmost accu- racy in its news and clinical reports. If you find a fac- tual error or content that requires clarification, please contact Managing Editor Robert Selleck at r.selleck@ dental-tribune.com. Dental Tribune cannot assume responsibility for the validity of product claims or for typographical errors. The publisher also does not assume responsibility for product names or statements made by advertisers. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and may not reflect those of Tribune America. editOrial bOard Dr. Joel Berg Dr. L. Stephen Buchanan Dr. Arnaldo Castellucci Dr. Gorden Christensen Dr. Rella Christensen Dr. William Dickerson Hugh Doherty Dr. James Doundoulakis Dr. David Garber Dr. Fay Goldstep Dr. Howard Glazer Dr. Harold Heymann Dr. Karl Leinfelder Dr. Roger Levin Dr. Carl E. Misch Dr. Dan Nathanson Dr. Chester Redhead Dr. Irwin Smigel Dr. Jon Suzuki Dr. Dennis Tartakow Dr. Dan Ward Tell us what you think! Do you have general comments or criti- cism you would like to share? Is there a particular topic you would like to see articles about in Dental Tribune? Let us know by sending an email to feedback@ dental-tribune.com. We look forward to hearing from you! If you would like to make any change to your subscription (name, address or to opt out) please send us an email at database@dental-tribune.com and be sure to include which publication you are referring to. Also, please note that subscription changes can take up to six weeks to process. DENTAL TRIBUNE The World’s Dental Newspaper · US Edition ... because his head was on a pillow and I could not see a wound. I remember the chief of neurosurgery, Dr. William Kemp Clark, rotating Kennedy’s head to the left, revealing that the posterior part of his skull had been radically fractured. He then said, “Stop. This injury is incompat- ible with life.” What was the atmosphere in the room? It became very quiet. Nobody said any- thing. Was there any chance that the president’s life could have been saved? Nothing that we did made a difference. Kennedy’s wound was clearly incompat- ible with life. According to eyewitnesses, discussions broke out about who was authorized to do the autopsy. Did you notice any of that? I did not, because I left the trauma room soon after the president had been pro- nounced dead and went back to the clinic to see my patient in the operating room. However, I found that all scheduled sur- geries for that day had been canceled, and all patients had been sent back to the ward. Only a few surgeries were underway at that time, including that of Governor John Bowden Connally, who had also been injured during the shooting. Because there was nothing else for me to do, I then cleared my business in the clinic and went home. There, we spent the weekend watching television and lis- tening to the news on the radio. We were relieved that President Lyndon B. Johnson had made it safely back to Washington and that the government was uninter- rupted. Finally on Sunday, we learned that the suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, had been shot, which indicated (to me) that there was something going on in addition to just a lone shooter. Many Americans do not believe Oswald acted alone, as concluded by the Warren Commission investigation. Did you see any irregularities in the official report in comparison to the events you witnessed directly? The Warren Commission’s report reflect- ed what the people wanted to hear, which was that Oswald acted alone and that there was no conspiracy. The doctors of Parkland, however, when wiping the blood from Kennedy’s neck for the tracheostomy found a single bul- let hole that was apparently an entrance wound, which meant (there) must have been a projectile that entered the presi- dent from the front. Because of its na- ture, the wound on the back of Kennedy’s head was an exit wound, so there must have been at least two bullets that came through the front. While all the doctors’ testimonies, in- cluding mine, were included in the report, their knowledge of the wounds did not have much influence on the commission’s overall conclusion. Why it was interpreted that way has remained a mystery for the past 50 years. What do you believe actually happened that day? My personal belief is that there were, of course, multiple shooters and that Os- wald did not do it alone. This would in- dicate, however, that there was in fact a conspiracy. You stayed at Parkland Memorial Hospital for another two years. Were the events still discussed by the staff in the aftermath? We actually never talked about it. This was something we just did not want to discuss. However, I left Parkland in 1965 for an exchange residency in London and Zurich, where I often discussed the events with my colleagues abroad. Particularly in England, there was much interest in U.S. politics and the assassination. You recently went public with your knowl- edge after 50 years. Why? Everything that I would say is already in the literature about the assassination, but I think there needs to be general knowl- edge (from) people who were actually in- volved. More than six million pages of classified evidence on the Kennedy assassination will be released by 2017. Are you interested in this knowledge? There is a great deal of speculation of what information these documents actu- ally contain. I do not look forward to it but would be interested to know what could be learned from them. NEWS This plaque marks the exact 1963 location of the Trauma Room No. 1 operating table — now the Radiology Department — at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Inset shows Trauma Room No. 1 as it looked in 1963 when Parkland doctors tried to save the life of the president. Photos/Provided by Parkland Memorial Hospital “ JFK, page A2