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EXCLUSIVE: NEWLY-DISCOVERED PARKLAND HOSPITAL DOCTOR, WILLIAM H.
ZEDLITZ, M.D.
BY VINCE PALAMARA
vmplac@telerama.com


DR. WILLIAM ZEDLITZ'S PRESENCE AT PARKLAND HOSPITAL ON NOVEMBER 22,
1963, AS VERIFIED BY DR. MARTIN G. WHITE (WARREN COMMISSION VOLUME 6,
PAGE 83): Arlen Specter: "And what doctors were present at the time you
left the room?" Dr. White: "Well, it would be impossible for me to tell
you all the people that were there, but I knew Dr. Carrico, Dr. Baxter,
Dr. Perry, and Dr. Zedelitz, Z-e-d-e-l-i-t-z (spelling)---I know they
were there." Arlen Specter: "Doctor who---what is his first name?" Dr.
White: "William Zedelitz." Arlen Specter: "To what extent did he
participate?" Dr. White: "I don't believe that he did any---I don't know
what he did other than the fact that when I was doing the cutdown he
assisted me by just placing some tape over the catheters we used to do
this with." Arlen Specter: "Is he an intern as you are?" Dr. White: "He
is a surgical resident here at this hospital." [This is the reason why
no one has ever contacted him before---he misspelled his last name!]



Having just completed a 339-page, massively-documented book pertaining
to the medical evidence in President Kennedy's assassination ("JFK: The
Medical Evidence Reference"), imagine my surprise when I received in the
mail a much-belated letter from one of the Parkland Hospital doctors who
was never interviewed before: Dr. William H. Zedlitz. Totally by
accident, I discovered the true spelling of his last name and, through
an internet search of physicians, I was able to locate the good doctor.
Having not heard from him, I dismissed it from my mind…until I received
his detailed reply to my two questions:


1) Exactly where was JFK's head wound located?


2) How did JFK's throat wound appear before the tracheostomy?


Without further ado, here is Dr. Zedlitz's verbatim response, from his
letter to me dated 11/4/98:


"Dear Mr. Palamara,


I received your letter concerning my participation in the emergency
treatment of President John F. Kennedy at Parkland Hospital on Nov. 22,
1963. At the time, I was a 2nd year general surgery resident at Parkland
Hospital and had just finished an operation and was starting to dictate
the operative report when I heard the page operator page Dr. Tom Shires
(chairman of the Department of General Surgery) to the emergency room.
Since Dr. Shires was not in town at that time I proceeded to the ER to
see what the problem was. As I stepped off the elevator, a man in a suit
with a gun asked me if I was a doctor. I replied that I was, and he
directed me to trauma room #1. I noticed at that point that the ER was
entirely empty of patients (they had been transported to another area by
the Secret Service). When I entered the trauma room I was surprised to
see two of our staff physicians (Dr. Charles Baxter and Dr. Malcolm
Perry) and one of the 3rd year surgery residents (Dr. James Carrico)
already there. Dr. Carrico had inserted an endotracheal tube into the
President and was trying to ventilate him with oxygen. At first glance
the president seemed to be in extremely serious condition as he was not
responding to any of the stimuli around him, and obviously had a massive
head injury to the right occipito-parietal area (right
posterior-lateral) of his cranium. This area was a mass of bloody tissue
with multiple skin, hair, and bony fragments matted together with blood
and brain tissue and covered an area approximately ten by twelve
centimeters in diameter. His left eye also seemed to be bulging from his
eyesocket. At this point, Dr. Carrico indicated that he was unable to
effectively ventilate the patient via the endotracheal tube. Dr. Baxter
and Perry immediately began to perform a tracheostomy. Prior to making
the incision, it was noted that a small (5mm to 7mm) hole in the front
of the neck below the thyroid cartilage was present. This was in the
exact location where the tracheostomy was to be performed. Dr. Baxter
and Perry decided to do the procedure by extending the transverse
incision on either side of this hole so that the tracheostomy tube ended
up being inserted in the site of the former hole. I trust this answers
your questions regarding the location of the head injury and the
appearance of the neck prior to the tracheostomy.

Sincerely,

William H. Zedlitz, M.D., FACS"


Thus, we can add Dr. Zedlitz to the long list of those medical witnesses
who noted an occipito-parietal head wound, as well as a small throat
wound. Too bad it took 35 years to get some of the answers!



Vince Palamara
12/1/98

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