The testimony of Dr. Gene Coleman Akin was taken at 11:30 a.m., on
March 25, 1964, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Tex., by Mr.
Arlen Specter, assistant counsel of the President's Commission.
Mr. SPECTER. May the record show that Dr. Gene Akin is present in
response to a letter request that he appear to have his deposition
taken in connection with an inquiry being conducted by the President's
Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. Dr. Akin is being
asked to appear here today to testify concerning his knowledge, if
any, about the condition of President Kennedy on arrival in Parkland
Hospital and his treatment here.
With that preliminary statement of purpose, Dr. Akin, will you rise and
raise your right hand, please?
Do you solemnly swear the testimony you shall give before the
President's Commission in this deposition proceeding will be the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Dr. AKIN. I do.
Mr. SPECTER. Will you state your full name, please?
Dr. AKIN. Gene Coleman Akin.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your profession?
Dr. AKIN. Medicine.
Mr. SPECTER. Are you duly licensed to practice in Texas, to practice
medicine?
Dr. AKIN. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Do you have any specialty?
Dr. AKIN. Anesthesiology.
Mr. SPECTER. And are you board-certified?
Dr. AKIN. No.
Mr. SPECTER. Are you working toward board-certification?
Dr. AKIN. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you outline briefly your educational background?
Dr. AKIN. Premedical school at University of Texas in Austin, medical
school, Southwestern Medical School Branch of the University of Texas,
internship, Dallas Methodist Hospital, and anesthesiology residence at
Parkland Memorial Hospital, starting in July 1962.
Mr. SPECTER. And, in what year did you graduate from medical school?
Dr. AKIN. 1961.
Mr. SPECTER. And how old are you at the present time, Doctor?
Dr. AKIN. Thirty-four.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you have occasion to render assistance to President
John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963?
Dr. AKIN. Briefly.
Mr. SPECTER. Would you state how you came to be called into the case?
Dr. AKIN. I was notified while I was on duty in the operating suite of
the hospital that anesthesia assistance was needed in the emergency
room. President Kennedy supposedly had been shot and had been brought
to the emergency room, and I immediately went down the back elevator
to the emergency room to see if I could be of assistance, and when I
walked in, a tracheotomy was being performed. President Kennedy still
had an endotracheal tube, an oro-tracheal tube in place, and the
connector from this to the Bird respirator was removed. The anesthesia
machine had been simultaneously rolled into the room and Dr. Jenkins
connected the anesthesia machine to the oro-tracheal tube and it stayed
there for a brief period, until the tracheotomy tube was placed in the
tracheotomy, at which time I connected the breathing tubes from the
anesthesia machine to the tracheotomy and held this in place while Dr.
Jenkins controlled the ventilation with 100-percent oxygen from the
anesthesia machine.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you assist Dr. Jenkins then in his work?
Dr. AKIN. Only insofar as I held the endotracheal connector in place
into the tracheotomy tube.
Mr. SPECTER. What doctors in addition to Dr. Jenkins then were present,
if any, at the time of your arrival?
Dr. AKIN. You mean everybody in the room? I don't know that I can name
all of them.
Mr. SPECTER. Name as many as you can, if you will, please?
Dr. AKIN. There was Dr. Jenkins, there was myself for a brief period,
there was Dr. Giesecke, Dr. Jackie Hunt--they left shortly after
arriving. I heard later that they had gone across the hall to Governor
Connally's room to assist him; Dr. Malcolm Perry, Dr. Charles Baxter,
Dr. Kemp Clark, Dr. Bob McClelland, Dr. James Carrico, Dr. Ron Jones,
was there. I think, shortly after I arrived, and Dr. Fouad Bashour
came in from cardiology; Dr. Don Seldin walked in briefly, I can't
remember the team that worked on the cutdowns on the legs--I can't
remember that. This is sort of hazy, because it was a couple of days
later we went through the same business over again and I am liable to
say that there was somebody there that worked on Kennedy that actually
had worked on Oswald, because I was on the Oswald mess too. This is all
that I remember were positively there. I remember their being there,
but there were others that I am not sure of.
Mr. SPECTER. What did you observe as to the President's condition?
Dr. AKIN. He looked moribund in my medical judgment.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you observe any wounds on him at the time you first
saw him?
Dr. AKIN. There was a midline neck wound below the level of the
cricoid cartilage, about 1 to 1.5 cm. in diameter, the lower part of
this had been cut across when I saw the wound, it had been cut across
with a knife in the performance of the tracheotomy. The back of the
right occipitalparietal portion of his head was shattered, with brain
substance extruding.
Mr. SPECTER. Returning to the wound which you first described, can you
state in any more detail the appearance of it at the time you first saw
it?
Dr. AKIN. I don't think I could--this is about all I noticed. I noticed
this wound very briefly and it was a matter of academics as to how he
sustained the wound. My attention, because of my standing on the right
side of the patient who was lying supine, my attention was very soon
directed to the head wound, and this was my major concern.
Mr. SPECTER. And as to the neck wound, did you have occasion to observe
whether there was a smooth, jagged, or what was the nature of the
portion of the neck wound, which had not been cut by the tracheotomy?
Dr. AKIN. It was slightly ragged around the edges.