What the surgeon who pulled John Hinckley's bullet out of Ronald Reagan's chest remembers
ABC News
"The first thing I saw was just a man -- who was in dire straits."
With John Hinckley's bullet still lodged in his chest, President Ronald Reagan was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, which is about nine minutes from the Hilton hotel where he'd been shot.
One of the surgeons who met him there was Dr. Benjamin Aaron, then chief of cardiothoracic surgery at GWU. Aaron would go on to remove what turned out to be an explosive "Devastator" bullet from the president -- though they didn't know that at the time.
It's a decision that proved crucial, and now, four decades later, Aaron recounted those moments to ABC News as Hinckley is poised for a potential release from his remaining court-ordered restrictions by June of next year.
The president was losing a lot of blood, a handkerchief soaked through by the time he arrived at the hospital.
