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Surgeon who saved Reagan reflects on retirement

By The Washington Post  
   March 21, 2012

Joseph Giordano was chairman of the Department for Surgery at George Washington University Hospital for 18 years. But he is best known as the doctor who saved President Ronald Reagan's life when he was shot on March 30, 1981. He was called to the emergency room where Reagan was lying on a gurney, with barely a faint pulse. Giordano retired almost two years ago. Though he misses the hubbub of the operating room, Giordano says a surgeon has a finite medical life, and he knew when he had reached his limit. He still teaches and is involved with a humanitarian surgical program. And he often lectures about his day with Reagan.

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