[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 44 (Wednesday, April 20, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
      DR. PAUL KENNEDY--WORLD WAR II VETERAN AND RESPECTED SURGEON

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 20, 1994

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, few Americans escape the necessity of 
placing their lives, at one time or another, in the hands of a member 
of the medical profession. Fortunate, indeed, are the thousands of 
people who were patients of this doctor and consummate surgeon. I rise 
today to honor Paul Andrew Kennedy, M.D. People of all walks of life, 
from the obscure to the prominent, from the soldier on the battlefield 
to the prisoner of war, from the desperate urgency of the midnight 
accident injury to the meticulous planning of the installation of one 
of the earliest cardiac pacemakers, all have benefited from the 
magnificent surgical skills, the finely honed technique, and the 
legendary dedication and compassion of Dr. Kennedy.
  The son of Martin Paul Kennedy and Mary Conner of Scranton, PA, young 
Paul, born November 19, 1912, showed his early toughness and dexterity 
as a starring member of Central High's football team. At a mere 5'8'' 
tall, he was Georgetown University's star quarterback for 3 years. 
Dubbed ``Little Thunder'' for his loud and plainly articulated football 
signals, he also was the winner of the Dixon Medal for Oratory, and the 
most efficient commander in ROTC with a bright future ahead in law. 
Subsequent to his graduation, however, he underwent an emergency 
appendectomy which changed the course of his life. On recovering 
successfully from the surgery, with characteristic decisiveness, he 
changed his career from law to medicine. Funding his way through extra 
course-work using football coaching skills, he finally graduated from 
Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1939 as president of his 
senior class.
  After completing his internship and 1 year of residency at Geisinger 
Memorial Hospital in Danville, PA, Dr. Kennedy sought to fulfill his 1-
year military obligation entering as a captain in the Medical Corps of 
the U.S. Army in 1941. But in 1942, after Pearl Harbor, and with the 
entrance of the United States into World War II, that 1 year stretched 
to 5. As part of the Second Auxiliary Surgical Group, Dr. Kennedy 
sailed to North Africa, leaving behind his young wife, Marian Haggarty, 
and his two small children. He then spent the next 3 years following 
the Allied Forces through Tunisia, Italy, France, and Germany--wherever 
action was the heaviest. Often out of touch with his family and news 
from the States, he learned about the birth of his third child on 
reading a 2-week-old announcement he found in a tattered ``Stars and 
Stripes.''
  As a surgeon in a small mobile medical team under the command of Dr. 
Gordon F. Madding, and later, in command of his own team, Dr. Kennedy 
performed 475 operations on wounded soldiers, both Allied personnel, 
and prisoners of war. All of these cases were meticulously illustrated 
and documented, and helped to account for the broad knowledge Dr. 
Kennedy came to possess about individual deviations in the human 
anatomy. The experience of caring and dealing with the victims of 
violence and trauma, particularly those who had suffered the horrors of 
prison camp life, remained with Dr. Kennedy throughout his life and 
deepened the compassion he felt for his parents. He was honorably 
discharged from the Army in September 1954 as a veteran of nine 
campaigns and recipient of a Bronze Star.
  After finishing his formal training at the University of Buffalo, 
under the tutelage of Dr. John D. Stewart, Dr. Kennedy qualified as a 
diplomate with the American College of Surgeons and the American Board 
of Thoracic Surgery and began his own private practice. He also 
accepted the post of assistant clinical professor of surgery at the 
University of Buffalo and qualified as a Fellow of the American 
Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and as a member of the Society 
for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. It was during this time that Dr. 
Kennedy began working with Dr. William Shardack, the leading inventor 
and developer of the heart pacemaker, to advance the surgical 
techniques necessary to successfully implant pacemakers.
  In 1961, Dr. Kennedy moved to California with his wife and five of 
their six children--the oldest serving with the U.S Army at the time--
and collaborated with Dr. Gordon F. Madding on the international 
publication of the definitive book ``Trauma of the Liver.'' He also 
worked with Dr. Madding and others in editing a number of surgical 
books, and wrote numerous medical journal articles on various surgical 
problems. In addition to private surgical practice in the bay area, Dr. 
Kennedy served as assistant clinical professor of surgery at Stanford 
School of Medicine. It was at Peninsula Hospital in 1965 that he 
performed the first successful pacemaker implant on a patient in the 
San Francisco Bay area.
  As a member of the San Francisco, Pacific Coast, and Western Thoracic 
surgical societies, Dr. Kennedy enjoyed a prominent career on the west 
coast, but he never relinquished the personal attention he gave to each 
of his patients. Until he retired due to the onset of Parkinson's 
disease, he frequently performed emergency surgery on the victims of 
late-night automobile accidents or other traumatic events.
  When Parkinson's disease struck him, Dr. Kennedy was forced to retire 
from active surgical practice in June 1980. From then until his death 
on December 1, 1993, he remained a valuable consultant and member of 
our community. He is sorely missed, but his legacy lives on in the many 
life-saving surgical techniques he advanced and in the example of 
courage and love he set for his colleagues, community, family, and 
friends.

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