Latest news with #JosephGiordano
New York Times
04-07-2025
- New York Times
Joseph Giordano, Surgeon Who Helped Save Reagan's Life, Dies at 84
Joseph Giordano, who as the lead trauma surgeon at George Washington University Hospital helped save the life of President Ronald Reagan after he was shot outside the Washington Hilton in 1981, died on June 24. He was 84. His son Christopher said the death, at MedStar Georgetown hospital in Washington, was from complications of an infection. A little after 3 p.m. on March 30, 1981, Dr. Giordano was examining a patient on his hospital's sixth floor when an announcement came over the loudspeaker calling him to the emergency room. It was only when he got down there, and through a scrum of Secret Service officers, that he realized the purpose of the call. And it was only after he and his team cut open the president's suit, revealing a hole below his left armpit, that they realized that Mr. Reagan had been shot. Just minutes earlier, and not far from the hospital, the president had been exiting the Hilton hotel after giving a speech to union representatives when John Hinckley Jr. approached him on the sidewalk and fired six shots from his .22-caliber revolver. The last shot ricocheted off the presidential limousine and hit Mr. Reagan. Two more shots hit Timothy McCarthy, a Secret Service officer, and James S. Brady, the White House spokesman, both of whom were also taken to George Washington. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
03-07-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
Joe Giordano, surgeon who helped save President Reagan's life after assassination attempt, has died
WASHINGTON — Dr. Joseph Giordano, a surgeon who played a central role in saving President Ronald Reagan's life after an assassination attempt in 1981, has died. He was 84. He died on June 24 at a hospital in Washington, D.C. from an infection related to a lengthy illness, his family said.
The Independent
03-07-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Joe Giordano, surgeon who helped save President Reagan's life after assassination attempt, has died
Dr. Joseph Giordano, a surgeon who played a central role in saving President Ronald Reagan's life after an assassination attempt in 1981, has died. He was 84. He died on June 24 at a hospital in Washington, D.C. from an infection related to a lengthy illness, his family said. Giordano was in charge of The George Washington University Hospital's trauma teams that treated Reagan after the president had been shot and badly wounded on March 30, 1981. Over the course of several dramatic hours, doctors stabilized Reagan, retrieved a bullet an inch from his heart and stanched massive internal bleeding. 'Dr. Giordano and the doctors at GW, without them, Ronald Reagan would have died,' said Jerry Parr, the president's lead Secret Service agent at the time, in a 2010 interview for the book " Rawhide Down." Revamps GW emergency room Giordano, the grandson of Italian immigrants, was born and raised in New Jersey. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1961 and six years later obtained a medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he joined GW as a vascular surgeon. A few weeks before he started in 1976, GW's chief of surgery told Giordano that he would have another job — fixing and managing the emergency room. 'The handling of trauma patients down there is a real mess,' his boss said. Giordano quickly discovered that assessment was correct. Inexperienced doctors were leading inefficient medical teams. Care was haphazard. Giordano watched as at least one patient died because treatment was rendered too slowly. Seeking out experts, he spent a month working at what would become the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland. The teams at Shock Trauma operated with speed and precision. They were methodical. He brought the approach to GW. Soon, the hospital's trauma center was regarded as among the best in the country. 'We had everything going like clockwork,' said Dr. David Gens, who helped treat Reagan and went on to a long career in trauma surgery. 'Joe had us properly trained. We had the right protocols. Everyone had a job. Organization and time are essential. So that when something happened, when the president came in, we were well organized. Thanks in part to Joe's foresight, we saved the president's life.' 'STAT to the ER' It was a typical March Monday for Giordano when a would-be assassin, John Hinckley, Jr., opened fire on Reagan as the president left a speech at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Parr, the Secret Service agent, shoved Reagan into a limousine, and it hurtled from the scene. On the ride back to the White House, Parr realized Reagan had been hurt, perhaps from being flung into the armored Lincoln. Not knowing the extent of the injuries — doctors would soon discover he had been shot — Parr directed the limousine to the hospital. At GW Giordano was treating a patient when the intercom began blaring: 'Dr. Giordano, STAT to the ER. Dr. Giordano, STAT to the ER.' Though he had turned over responsibility for running the emergency room to another doctor, Giordano was still in charge of the trauma teams. He knew something must be terribly wrong for him to be summoned that way. In the ER, he found a man he recognized as the president on gurney. Nurses had already cut off Reagan's clothes and inserted IV lines. Strangely, the first thing that Giordano noticed about the president was his dark hair. It seemed so natural. 'I wondered," Giordano recalled in a 2010 interview, 'if he dyed it.' 'How are you doing, Mr. President?' he asked. 'I'm having trouble breathing,' Reagan replied. Bleeding won't stop Gens, a chief surgical resident, provided Giordano a quick summary of the situation: The president had been shot in the left side, his chest was filling with blood and they were about to insert a chest tube to drain the chest cavity. Giordano did not hesitate. 'You better let me do this one.' He typically would have let a resident handle such a procedure, but he felt it would be irresponsible to put such pressure on young doctors. He made an incision eight inches below Reagan's left armpit and inserted the tube. It relieved pressure on Reagan's lung and allowed him to breathe more easily. But the bleeding did not stop. Doctors decided they had to operate. Giordano and Gens performed a peritoneal lavage — known as a 'belly tap' — and ensured that Reagan's abdomen was clear of blood. They then turned over the patient to a chest surgeon, Dr. Benjamin Aaron, who halted the bleeding and retrieved the bullet. Reagan spent 11 days at GW and fully recovered from his wounds. Three others were injured in the shooting: White House Press Secretary Jim Brady; Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy; and Thomas Delahanty, a police officer. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was confined at a psychiatric hospital until a federal judge in 2022 ordered his unconditional release. 'Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans' Giordano would go on to become GW's chairman of surgery, a post he held for 18 years before retiring in 2010. That same year, he joined the board at Partner for Surgery, a nonprofit group that arranges surgery for people living in rural Guatemala. Tapping his contacts in the medical community, Giordano recruited doctors and nurses to travel to the Central American country to provide the badly needed medical services, said Frank Peterson, the group's founder. Giordano also led several medical teams on such missions. 'The one word I would use to describe him is humanitarian,' Peterson said. 'He had the skills and capabilities that made a world of difference to people who were in need.' Though Giordano played a decisive role in saving Reagan's life, the physician may best be remembered for a line he delivered in the operating room. Just before he was administered anesthesia, Reagan dramatically got up on an elbow, took off his oxygen mask and said, 'I hope you are all Republicans.' Giordano, a staunch liberal, didn't miss a beat: 'Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans.' Years later, the surgeon jokingly reflected that "it was okay to be a Republican for a day, especially that day.'
Associated Press
03-07-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Joe Giordano, surgeon who helped save President Reagan's life after assassination attempt, has died
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Joseph Giordano, a surgeon who played a central role in saving President Ronald Reagan's life after an assassination attempt in 1981, has died. He was 84. He died on June 24 at a hospital in Washington, D.C. from an infection related to a lengthy illness, his family said. Giordano was in charge of The George Washington University Hospital's trauma teams that treated Reagan after the president had been shot and badly wounded on March 30, 1981. Over the course of several dramatic hours, doctors stabilized Reagan, retrieved a bullet an inch from his heart and stanched massive internal bleeding. 'Dr. Giordano and the doctors at GW, without them, Ronald Reagan would have died,' said Jerry Parr, the president's lead Secret Service agent at the time, in a 2010 interview for the book " Rawhide Down.' Revamps GW emergency room Giordano, the grandson of Italian immigrants, was born and raised in New Jersey. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1961 and six years later obtained a medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he joined GW as a vascular surgeon. A few weeks before he started in 1976, GW's chief of surgery told Giordano that he would have another job — fixing and managing the emergency room. 'The handling of trauma patients down there is a real mess,' his boss said. Giordano quickly discovered that assessment was correct. Inexperienced doctors were leading inefficient medical teams. Care was haphazard. Giordano watched as at least one patient died because treatment was rendered too slowly. Seeking out experts, he spent a month working at what would become the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland. The teams at Shock Trauma operated with speed and precision. They were methodical. He brought the approach to GW. Soon, the hospital's trauma center was regarded as among the best in the country. 'We had everything going like clockwork,' said Dr. David Gens, who helped treat Reagan and went on to a long career in trauma surgery. 'Joe had us properly trained. We had the right protocols. Everyone had a job. Organization and time are essential. So that when something happened, when the president came in, we were well organized. Thanks in part to Joe's foresight, we saved the president's life.' 'STAT to the ER' It was a typical March Monday for Giordano when a would-be assassin, John Hinckley, Jr., opened fire on Reagan as the president left a speech at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Parr, the Secret Service agent, shoved Reagan into a limousine, and it hurtled from the scene. On the ride back to the White House, Parr realized Reagan had been hurt, perhaps from being flung into the armored Lincoln. Not knowing the extent of the injuries — doctors would soon discover he had been shot — Parr directed the limousine to the hospital. At GW Giordano was treating a patient when the intercom began blaring: 'Dr. Giordano, STAT to the ER. Dr. Giordano, STAT to the ER.' Though he had turned over responsibility for running the emergency room to another doctor, Giordano was still in charge of the trauma teams. He knew something must be terribly wrong for him to be summoned that way. In the ER, he found a man he recognized as the president on gurney. Nurses had already cut off Reagan's clothes and inserted IV lines. Strangely, the first thing that Giordano noticed about the president was his dark hair. It seemed so natural. 'I wondered,' Giordano recalled in a 2010 interview, 'if he dyed it.' 'How are you doing, Mr. President?' he asked. 'I'm having trouble breathing,' Reagan replied. Bleeding won't stop Gens, a chief surgical resident, provided Giordano a quick summary of the situation: The president had been shot in the left side, his chest was filling with blood and they were about to insert a chest tube to drain the chest cavity. Giordano did not hesitate. 'You better let me do this one.' He typically would have let a resident handle such a procedure, but he felt it would be irresponsible to put such pressure on young doctors. He made an incision eight inches below Reagan's left armpit and inserted the tube. It relieved pressure on Reagan's lung and allowed him to breathe more easily. But the bleeding did not stop. Doctors decided they had to operate. Giordano and Gens performed a peritoneal lavage — known as a 'belly tap' — and ensured that Reagan's abdomen was clear of blood. They then turned over the patient to a chest surgeon, Dr. Benjamin Aaron, who halted the bleeding and retrieved the bullet. Reagan spent 11 days at GW and fully recovered from his wounds. Three others were injured in the shooting: White House Press Secretary Jim Brady; Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy; and Thomas Delahanty, a police officer. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was confined at a psychiatric hospital until a federal judge in 2022 ordered his unconditional release. 'Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans' Giordano would go on to become GW's chairman of surgery, a post he held for 18 years before retiring in 2010. That same year, he joined the board at Partner for Surgery, a nonprofit group that arranges surgery for people living in rural Guatemala. Tapping his contacts in the medical community, Giordano recruited doctors and nurses to travel to the Central American country to provide the badly needed medical services, said Frank Peterson, the group's founder. Giordano also led several medical teams on such missions. 'The one word I would use to describe him is humanitarian,' Peterson said. 'He had the skills and capabilities that made a world of difference to people who were in need.' Though Giordano played a decisive role in saving Reagan's life, the physician may best be remembered for a line he delivered in the operating room. Just before he was administered anesthesia, Reagan dramatically got up on an elbow, took off his oxygen mask and said, 'I hope you are all Republicans.' Giordano, a staunch liberal, didn't miss a beat: 'Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans.' Years later, the surgeon jokingly reflected that 'it was okay to be a Republican for a day, especially that day.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Perspective: Being American should trump partisanship
In March of 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot and critically wounded. Before being wheeled into surgery, Reagan, known for his good-natured quips, famously said to his doctors, 'Please tell me you're Republicans.'' Dr. Joseph Martin Giordano, the director of George Washington University Hospital's trauma unit, replied, ''Mr. President, right now, everybody is a Republican.'' But Giordano was a registered Democrat, and he and his team saved Reagan's life. Giordano was one of the best in his field, and throughout his presidency, Reagan never doubted the goodwill of most Americans of any party. But this spirit is under assault today. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in a recent tempest-in-a-teapot regarding three Republican attorneys general — Dave Yost of Ohio, Alan Wilson of South Carolina and Lynn Fitch of Mississippi — who are taking public flak for hiring law firms that predominately donate to Democrats for litigation related to the opioid crisis and other complex cases. To be sure, there is a difference between life-saving medical treatment and patronizing law firms which are involved in the political process. But they share underlying issues in common. The fiercest criticism comes from a group called the Alliance for Consumers, an organization which seems focused on electing Republican attorneys general. O. H. Skinner, the group's executive director, deems the practice of hiring Democratic connected law firms 'unsophisticated,' and his sentiments are echoed by Mississippi auditor Shad White, a Republican who sees the differences as 'generational,' the 'old guard,' who wants to keep the status quo, vs. the young turks who want to 'ruffle some feathers.' But the conversation raises the question: ruffle feathers, for what purpose? White and the Alliance for Consumers suggest that partisanship alone is the most important consideration that requires feathers be ruffled. That's a downright dangerous point of view. Yost, the Ohio AG, didn't mince words when it came to defending his record: 'A blanket refusal to use a qualified firm based solely on perceived political leanings wouldn't just be bad government, it would be bad legal strategy. We seek out firms and lawyers with the competency to win cases, not ones who check ideological boxes.' His position is the right one. Indeed, there's a certain irony about a group called the Alliance for Consumers arguing, in essence, that the amount of money won in a lawsuit involving the opioid crisis —over $700 million in South Carolina alone — is less important than partisan loyalties. The entire point of such litigation is for the benefit of consumers who have been hurt by practices that federal courts deemed harmful. The past decade has seen extreme partisan swings, from Democrat to Republican and back again. Widespread disenchantment with both parties cannot rationally be said to be a result of too little partisanship. While it is always difficult to judge the complex positions of more than 150 million American voters, the more likely scenario is that a failure of our political leaders to accomplish much of anything lasting is at the core of voter dissatisfaction. Prioritizing donations to your favored political party cannot but lead to worse public policy over time. Something much more fundamental is lost if we allow partisanship of this sort to take center stage. The rules of a free society are, by necessity, relatively fewer and less restrictive. And as such, a certain amount of good faith is required when we seek to operate in the best interests of the public. While it is unrealistic to assume partisanship will play no role, forcing party loyalty to center stage, at all times, destroys the trust required for a large, pluralistic society to function well. The consequences are more than a simple loss of collegiality, as important as that is. Such behavior also leads to the belief that we'll be treated unfairly when the 'other side' takes power. The late Sen. Henry M. 'Scoop' Jackson (D-WA), famous for treating his Republican colleagues fairly, once said, 'Although I am a Democrat, and will work hard for the Democratic victory in November, I respect my Republican friends and their views — and wish them well 364 days a year. On election day, it's a little harder.' That's a much better vision as to how partisanship should work. Am I making too much out of a simple dispute over what law firms a few state attorneys general contract with? That's certainly possible. In the wide range of things to be outraged about, this dispute is relatively minor. But too many of the problems in our current political climate have occurred because too few people raise alarm when small things are doing violence to larger, more fundamental and important truths. Back to Ronald Reagan: He famously, and repeatedly, asked then Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, a Democrat, if it was 6 p.m. yet. He meant that, while they might be foes during the work day, they could be friends after work. In truth, O'Neill didn't think a lot of Reagan, as he made clear in his memoirs, but the men still kept things collegial. Even if this principle is not always, or even usually, upheld, it should be something to aim for. If Republicans and Democrats don't view each other as Americans first, our nation, and both parties, will pay the price in the long term.
