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Parkland's JFK treatment room locked away


Kowalski

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Parkland's JFK treatment room locked away as a state secret

DALLAS -- On the ground floor of Parkland Hospital, inside the radiology waiting room, is the only evidence of what happened here almost fifty years ago.

"I started work at Parkland Hospital in 1972 as a bio-medical engineering technician," said former employee Don Pyeatt.

That's about the time Parkland was preparing to expand and demolish Trauma Room 1, where doctors treated countless patients, including President John F. Kennedy a decade earlier.

Pyeatt captured the only known images of the treatment room -- eight snapshots -- where history happened.

"It was just historically significant to me," he explained.

News 8 traveled to the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, which holds some of the most extraordinary artifacts of JFK's assassination, including the rifle Oswald used to assassinate the president, Abraham Zapruder's 8-millimeter camera that captured it, plus, JFK's blood-stained shirt and his Christian Dior necktie, which were both cut-off by emergency room doctors at Parkland Hospital.

In addition, there is an interesting chain of private letters about the historic hospital room known as Trauma Room 1.

But the National Archives said the contents of Parkland's Trauma Room 1 are different. They were not purchased with federal funds, but rather donations to the General Services Administration.

"GSA, on behalf of the National Archives, acquired the Parkland Memorial Hospital materials, in order to keep them from becoming souvenirs on the open market," said Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs Specialist, U.S. National Archives. "They are not Federal records and have never been accessioned into the National Archives as archival records. The materials have never been treated as records of either the Warren Commission or the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and they are not considered assassination records under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. For these reasons, the materials are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act or any other statutory right of access."

Since they are not federal records, they could essentially remain off-limits to the public -- perhaps forever.

Behind an eight-inch vault door at the National Archives former facility in Fort Worth is where Trauma Room 1 sat in crates for 34 years.

"I believe most of this was originally set in motion by the Kennedy family," said Farris Rookstool, a former FBI analyst.

Rookstool is among the few to see the items in storage during his days with the bureau.

"All it is is a room with used equipment," he explained. "There's nothing ghoulish about it. It is a disarticluated former hospital treatment facility."

Six years ago, the Archives moved from its south Fort Worth facility and sent the Parkland crates to underground storage in Lenexa, Kansas.

Dust and debris are all that remain on the floor in Fort Worth.

The aging hospital equipment is a state secret now - locked away without clear explanation - leaving Pyeatt's pictures and a small plaque as the only reminders of Parkland's efforts to save the president.

Taken from http://www.wfaa.com/jfk/Parklands-JFK-treatment-room-locked-away-as-a-state-secret-208705441.html

Also see this link for memos regarding Trauma Room 1: http://images.bimedia.net/documents/jfk-052213-reduced.pdf

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I worked at the hospital where John Lennon ended up. I was in the room where they cracked his chest ,100s of times ....

*sighs*

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Really??

Very sad what happened to John Lennon. It always seems to be the people who tell us to live together in harmony and peace who end up being killed.....

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I worked at the hospital where John Lennon ended up. I was in the room where they cracked his chest ,100s of times ....

*sighs*

Wow!

I was in Las Vegas when Lennon was shot.

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Wow!

I was in Las Vegas when Lennon was shot.

Oh,I wasn't there when he was there. Years later .I was a little kid when he was shot . I was at home watching Quincy when he was shot ,but I was in the room where they took him,many times.

Roosevelt hospital on 59th st .Manhattan .

Our medical director ,Dr Stephen Lynn ,cracked Lennons chest and did open heart massage .Stories about it abound .

The cops took Lennon in,in the back of a police car . They didn't wait for the ambulance .

Dr Lynn was awesome.

By the time I worked there,all the people involved in Lennons sad day,were in supervisor positions ,and I was a newbie .

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