Video: 'Press Secretary Pierre Salinger announces the birth of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, August 7, 1963'
(Wednesday, August 7, 1963, 12:52 p.m. EDT) — First lady Jacqueline Kennedy became the first sitting U.S. first lady to give birth since Frances Folsom Cleveland in 1897 when Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was born today by emergency caesarean section, five and a half weeks early, at the Otis Air Force Base Hospital in Bourne, Massachusetts.
He was quickly transferred to the Children’s Hospital Boston, and would die 39 hours later of respiratory problems.
Mrs. Kennedy had suffered a miscarriage in 1955, followed the next year by a stillborn baby girl that the Kennedys planned to name Arabella after a ship with that name.
Two healthy children followed: Caroline in 1957 and John Jr. in 1960.
Jackie had taken Caroline and John Jr. for a pony ride this morning in Osterville, Massachusetts. While the children were riding, Kennedy felt labor pains.
Her obstetrician, John W. Walsh, was summoned, and they were taken by helicopter to Otis Air Force Base.
The president’s secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, hurried into the Oval Office at 11:43 a.m. EDT to report that Jackie had gone into premature labor on Cape Cod.
While his father was aboard Air Force One, the infant Kennedy was born by emergency caesarean section, performed by Dr. Walsh, who had also delivered Mrs. Kennedy of John Jr. in 1960.
Video: 'Kennedy Baby In Trouble (1963)'
The infant’s birth weight was 4 pounds 10+1?2 ounces (2.11 kg).
Shortly after birth, Kennedy developed symptoms of hyaline membrane disease (HMD), now called infant respiratory distress syndrome (IRDS). It was detected by breathing difficulties within minutes.
The president arrived, saw his son in distress, and sent for a chaplain. The infant was quickly baptized, named Patrick after his great-grandfather Patrick Joseph Kennedy (1858–1929). He was given the middle name of Bouvier after his mother’s maiden name.
The president was allowed to wheel the baby in an incubator to the First Lady’s bedside.
James E. Drorbaught, the pediatric specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital, was flown by helicopter from Boston to consult on his case, and he recommended transfer to Boston. Five hours after birth, the infant, accompanied by Dr. Drorbaught, was rushed by ambulance to Boston Children’s Hospital, 70 miles (110 km) away, in under 90 minutes.
The transfer to the hospital in Boston was initially reported as a “precautionary measure,” the White House said. The baby’s condition was accurately reported as HMD, but it was also reported that it would take at least four days to assess his condition and that he was being given medication to assist his condition.
At the time, all that could be done for a baby with hyaline membrane disease was to keep the patient’s blood chemistry as close to normal as possible. Led by Dr. Drorbaught, who stayed awake the entire time, the hospital tried everything possible to save the infant’s life.
The baby was given hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in which he was placed in a hyperbaric chamber filled with 100% oxygen and pressurized to greater than one atmosphere. At the time, the treatment was revolutionary; The New York Times described it as “one of the newest interests of medical researchers.”
