Wednesday, December 03, 2003
From The New York Times, April 23, 1981. (p. B12)TRANSCRIPT OF AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT ON HIS WOUNDING
Associated Press
WASHINGTON, (April 22) - Following is the official White House transcript of an interview with President Reagan today by James Gerstenzang of The Associated Press and Helen Thomas of United Press International:
Q. All the reports seem to be true, rosy cheeks and -
A. Oh, I'm feeling fine.
Q. Can you tell us a little bit about how you felt at the time of the shooting? Did you ever feel you were in mortal danger? I know you didn't even know you were hit, but -
A. No, that's right, and as a matter of fact, it still seems unreal. I knew there had to be shots, and my first instinct was to take a look and see what was going on from where they were, but the Secret Service man behind me had a different idea and the next thing I knew I found myself pushed into the car. But it still seems kind of unreal.
Q. It's unreal to us, too, because we've come out of that hotel so many times and -
A. Yeah.
Q. - nothing -
Q. What were your first thoughts when you realized you had been hit?
A. Actually, I can't recall too clearly. I knew I'd been hurt, but I thought that I'd been hurt by the Secret Service man landing on me in the car, and it was, I must say, it was the most paralyzing pain. I've described it as if someone had hit you with a hammer.
But that sensation, it seemed to me, came after I was in the car, and so I thought that maybe his gun or something, when he had come down on me, had broken a rib.
But when I sat up on the seat and the pain wouldn't go away, and suddenly I found that I was coughing up blood, we both decided that maybe I'd broken a rib and punctured a lung.
So that's when we headed for the hospital, and I walked in and gave them my own diagnosis, and the next thing I knew I was on a cart, and it was then, I guess, that they found the wound and that I'd - actually had been shot.
Q. Then you were awake and everything, I mean -
A. Oh, yes.
Q. - but you had lost a lot of blood and -
A. Yes. And my main concern, even as I was getting to the hospital, was that - and I voiced this several times to them - that the more I tried to breathe, and the deeper I tried to breathe, it kept seeming as if I was getting less air and, you know that panic that you can get if you're strangling on something.
I almost had the feeling that it was going to diminish to the place where I wouldn't be getting any and then they shut me up by sticking a pipe down my throat and oxygen on and that's when I had to start writing notes. Because I couldn't talk with that pipe in there.
Q. But you always felt that you were alert enough to know what was going on?
A. Oh, yes. Yeah, I knew they'd - I knew that in the manner in which I was unclothed that I probably wouldn't wear that suit again.
Q. Do you have any feelings about going out again? I mean, are there any - is there trauma or instants where you say, ''Oh, God, do I have to face this again?'' or do you feel that, you know -
A. I have a hunch I'll be more alert in going again.
Q. We will, too.
A. I - that's the other thing. I look back now in some of these reviews that they've shown of the first few months and so forth. I see some of the milling in crowds and so forth that we've done, and I find myself wondering, ''Well, why didn't this happen 27 times before?'' But, no, there's not going to be any change in the way we do things.
[...]
Q. Do you have any feelings about your assailant? Of course, there's nothing you can really feel, I guess. It's something that's senseless.
A. Well - yes, I - the feeling is I hope, indeed I pray, that he can find an answer to his problem. He seems to be a very disturbed young man. He comes from a fine family. They must be devastated by this. And I hope he'll get well, too.
Q. That's very kind of you. You don't have any feelings of real anger, then, or -
A. I don't know how I could ask for help for myself and feel that way about someone else.
Q. If you were to speak to his parents what would you tell them?
A. Well, I think I'd tell them that I understand and - hope for a good outcome there, to end their problem. .....---
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