Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Pioneering surgeon dies at 81

|
|
 
  
Published: Nov. 1, 2007 at 2:56 PM

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Dr. Tom Shires, who was chief of surgery at the Dallas hospital where President John Kennedy was pronounced dead, has died at the age of 81.

Shires, who was in Galveston giving a talk on Nov. 23, 1963, was escorted back to Dallas by Texas Rangers to operate on Texas Gov. John Connally, who was wounded during the Kennedy assassination. He also examined Lee Harvey Oswald, the suspected assassin, who was shot and killed while he was in custody.

In addition to his brush with history at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Shires was known as a pioneering surgeon, The Los Angeles Times reported. In the 1960s, he developed the technique of administering saline solution to surgical patients and trauma victims, finding that it helps blood cells maintain their shape.

Shires died of gastrointestinal cancer at his home in Las Vegas, Nev., on Oct. 18, his daughter said. For the past 10 years he had been director of the trauma institute at the University of Nevada School of Medicine.

Topics: Lee Harvey Oswald
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 25
Meryl Streep and Colin Firth attend the "BAFTA" ceremony in London
View Caption
fark
High school coach retires at 65 after getting arrested nude, "aroused" in car backseat with 17-year-old...
Man arrested for stealing $25k worth of Tide detergent. Witnesses say the suspect appeared quite...
News: Two cars fighting gun battle on Interstate accidentally fire into car of innocent women. Fark:...
Dads, before showing "The Smurfs" DVD from your laptop at your kid's birthday party, make sure you...
It's a Jeep thing. You wouldn't understand
Baby shower ends with three people stabbed after a drunken argument between relatives of mom-to-be...