Thread by @DelWilber

What brings this day home to me is Dr. David Adelberg. He was a 31-year-old surgical intern at GWU on March 30, 1981.
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https://twitter.com/DelWilber/status/1376874772294942725

When Reagan got to the ER, doctors discovered he had been shot (it was a lucky strike -- the bullet ricocheted off the back quarter panel of the limo, flattened into a dime and hit Reagan edgewise under the left arm pit). Took some time to find the wound. 2/x

The docs inserted a chest tube to drain the president's left chest (it was filled with blood from internal bleeding). It flowed for 30 minutes or so. The president wouldn't stop bleeding. The 70-year-old #potus would lose more than half his blood. 3/x

So doctors took the president into surgery (usually they just leave bullets in you!). A common misnomer is that the doctors operated to remove an explosive round. Hinckley did use "Devastator" bullets, but docs wouldn't learn that for many hours. 4/x

So enter David Adelberg. 31. A nobody. He had gotten up that morning planning to do some random operation. But Dr. Benjamin Aaron, the main chest surgeon, insisted he keep his regular team together for Reagan's surgery. This was a key decision. 5/x

Dr. Daniel Ruge, an esteemed brain surgeon and the WH physician, insisted that Aaron treat Reagan like any other patient. He knew protocols worked. He didn't want Reagan to fall victim to VIP syndrome. So that meant Aaron kept his normal team together. No big shots. 6/x

So Adelberg, Aaron's intern, found himself in the operating room, and assisting the surgeon as he operates -- opening up Reagan's chest, fixing wounds, stopping the bleeding and hunting for the bullet. 7/x

To give Aaron more space to work, Adelberg reached into Reagan's chest, gently cupped the president's beating heart in his hand and nestled it aside. A 31-year-old surgical intern LITERALLY held the beating life of the president in his hand. 8/x

To make a long and dramatic story short, Aaron found the bullet. Smashed into the shape of a dime, it had tumbled end over end upon entering the president, chewing up arteries, thus explaining the extensive bleeding. 9/x

Reagan recovered, obviously. I may tweet more on 3/30/81, and why this day made Reagan's presidency.

But I have been thinking about circumstance and how ordinary people get thrown into extraordinary events. And it brought to mind Adelberg. 10/x

A dude who got up on March 30, 1981, to do some random/mundane surgery and wound up holding the president's beating heart, playing a small but vital role in saving the president's life. -30-