Joseph Giordano, surgeon who helped Reagan survive assassination attempt, dies at 84

Joseph Giordano, the surgeon who led the trauma team that saved President Ronald Reagan’s life, has died.

Giordano died June 24, just two days after his 84th birthday. His death was reported Monday by The Washington Post.

Giordano was the chief of surgery and director of the trauma center at George Washington University Hospital where Reagan was rushed to after an assassination attempt 54 years ago.

“A stat page was very rare, so I was curious,” Giordano told GW Today back in 2010. “I walked into the ER and there were all these people there, then I saw the president lying on a gurney.”

On March 30, 1981, just two months into his presidency, Reagan waved to a crowd as he left the Washington Hilton when John Hinckley Jr. fired a gun six times. Only the last bullet hit the president, penetrating his lung and resting just an inch from his heart.

“He was seriously injured. I think close to dying,” Giordano told the outlet.

The president walked into GW Hospital before collapsing. Secret Service agents and the president himself did not know he had been shot. They instead thought he was suffering from a broken rib after being pushed by an agent into the limousine. 

Giordano and his trauma team found the gunshot wound and treated him before undergoing surgery to remove the bullet.

“It’s affected my life ever since,” Giordano said. “It really put GW on the map, and it had a very positive impact on all of us who took care of the president.”

The hospital also received substantial donations following the president’s successful operation.

Giordano was responsible for organizing the trauma unit at GW Hospital that saved Reagan’s life. He assembled procedures to be followed by emergency medical teams that led to the unit receiving a Level I trauma center certification by the American College of Surgeons.

Joseph Martin Giordano was the son of Italian immigrants, and the first in his family to go to college.

During the annual dinner of the National Italian American Foundation on  September 15, 1984, President Reagan gave remarks honoring Giordano and his father.

 "Before I leave you tonight, I want to add just one more thing," Reagan began. "Decades and decades back, there was an Italian immigrant who came to America. And he started a family and worked hard and raised his children as best he could.

"One of his sons became a milkman. He, too, worked hard and married and had a family. And then the mailman – or the milkman, I should say, raised his children as he had been raised. They were taught to respect honesty, decency, and hard work. They struggled to make ends meet. 

"All of the money went to the education of their children. They put one son through college, and when he said he wanted to be a doctor, they put him through medical school. Because of their diligence, the son became a prominent surgeon in a great hospital. And one day that surgeon, that son of a milkman, saved the life of a President of the United States who'd been shot. I know this story, because I was the patient. 

"Dr. Joseph Giordano is the surgeon. The hero of this story is Joseph Giordano, Sr. – retired milkman and inheritor of the Italian-American tradition. I have thanked the Giordanos, but I've not had a chance to personally thank a group like this for all that you've done to keep the tradition alive."