Word: cuneo
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Examining Kennedy and the X rays, Cuneo found that two bullets had entered his body. One had penetrated his right armpit, then burrowed upward through fat and muscle, lodging just under the skin of his neck, two centimeters from his spine. The other had penetrated Kennedy's head just behind his right ear (see chart...
...heart was still beating, a little fast, a little weak. His blood pressure had been dangerously high before the tracheotomy. It stabilized near normal after the throat tube relieved pressure caused by blood and mucus in the trachea. "The heart started to stabilize too, so we could operate," Cuneo later told TIME Correspondent Tim Tyler. Ethel Kennedy had been there all the while, standing in a different section of the room. "I told her we were taking X rays, that her husband was extremely critical...
...neck, the surgeons turned their attention to uncovering the damage to Kennedy's brain. The head was shaved. Overlying skin and muscle were then cut and laid back. An air-powered drill bored through the skull, and a segment of bone was removed. Then, while Reid helped control bleeding, Cuneo probed the wound. Softened and bruised brain tissue, bone fragments and clotted blood were removed by suction...
...bullet had hit one centimeter to the rear, the Senator would have been in fairly good condition," Cuneo explained curtly. "But it hit the mastoid, which is a spongy, honeycomb bone. Behind that is the thickest part of your head. That's solid. The little bullet would have just bounced off. But hitting the mastoid, it sent bone fragments shooting all over the Senator's brain. The bone fragments are the worst part, not the bullet fragments. The bullet is pretty sterile from the heat, and once the fragments are in the brain, they don't do any more damage...
When the 3-hr. 40-min. operation was over, Kennedy "stabilized pretty well," said Cuneo. An electroencephalograph showed regular brain waves. Feeding him intravenously, continuing the transfusions and the monitoring of his life forces, the doctor watched for signs of consciousness. Even then, said Cuneo, "we were certain that the future would be disastrous for the Senator if he did survive. I didn't tell Ethel all this; I just told her that we were doing everything we could...