Excerpts

“The part of the story that means the most to me is the role played by the president and the first lady, the grace with which they handled an unexpected crisis, which ended with the death of their newborn son. It was a very tragic episode made more bearable because of their graciousness towards all of us every step of the way. This is the main thing I would like those who read your story to remember”.

James Drorbaugh, MD, Patrick’s Attending Physician

“The first night, a photographer standing atop one of the buildings down the street, using a telescopic lens, snapped a photo of me through the window while I was standing there observing the Kennedy baby. That picture wound up on the cover of Life magazine the following week. The photo seemed to capture a very stark and tension-filled moment in Patrick’s course”.

James Hughes, MD, Patrick’s Admitting Physician

“I remember him [ President Kennedy] most as a very congenial, pleasant father and a very quick study as to what was going on. He picked up things fast. We had many brief conversations about the baby and he stayed out of the way. He had a lot of people around him. I remember his brother Teddy being around, and Pierre Salinger, the press secretary, seemed to be a constant presence. Everybody stayed in the background, so there was no problem. The whole scene was pretty low key, although it was a very tough situation”.

William F. Bernhard, MD, FACS, Patrick’s treatment team physician

The death of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was a seminal event in the history of neonatal care. His death spurred the creation of what is now the Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) which accelerated research that has been translated from the bench to the bedside. Within a decade of his death there was a much better understanding of respiratory distress syndrome resulting in a more rational approach to therapy and better outcomes. The development of ventilators specifically designed for neonates and the introduction of CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) dramatically improved survival rates which increased even more with introduction of surfactant therapy some twenty years later. Today babies with a similar birth weight and gestational age to Patrick Kennedy would have a 99% chance of survival.

—Avroy A. Fanaroff M.D., Virginia Apgar awardee, coeditor of Care of the High-Risk Neonate and coauthor of Fanaroff and Martin’s Neonatal - Perinatal Medicine: Diseases of the Fetus and Infant