Trauma: Everything Was Not Enough

After five minutes, a brain deprived of blood-transported oxygen suffers irreversible and often fatal damage. Thus the doctors who tried desperately last week to save the life of Robert F. Kennedy were faced with overwhelmingly negative odds from the moment the Senator was wheeled, unconscious, from an ambulance into the city's Central Receiving Hospital.

He had lost blood during the 23 minutes he lay in the pantry hallway at the Ambassador Hotel. During the four-minute ride to Central Receiving, Kennedy continued to bleed heavily, and though the...