When History, Destiny Converged

At the Hospital

The commotion caught security guard Frederick Bailey's attention as he stood near the emergency ramp at GWU Hospital -- a limo pulling in with a couple of men running alongside it.

"We didn't know at the time who was coming," said Bailey, now head of hospital security.

Secret Service agents burst into the emergency room, ordering families out. Police swarmed the area. Armed officers appeared on nearby rooftops. A media corral was set up across the street. "We weren't sure if it was a plot, and other people were involved," Bailey said. "The hospital went to code purple."

Joseph Giordano reported to the emergency room to find his patient lying on a gurney with "a very bad injury." A bullet had ricocheted off the armored presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the left armpit, stopping an inch from his heart and causing bleeding in his lung.

"I tell everybody, five or 10 more minutes may have made a difference," Giordano said. "You lose blood pressure slowly, then it's off the edge. He was almost there. If there had been much more of a delay, it would have been a different ending."

Reagan was stabilized, but the bleeding did not stop, so surgery was scheduled. Still, the president seemed determined to keep laughing.

"Please tell me you're Republicans," he joked to the doctors about to operate on him. And Giordano, whose liberal Democratic stance was well known, said he replied, "Mr. President, today we are all Republicans."

Giordano did not have time to think about his hand in history that day, not then. A couple of days later, he said, "it dawned on me, when my role was over, I said to myself, 'This better work out well.' "

The Bradys Now

President Reagan would stay in the hospital 12 days. Delahanty and McCarthy recovered quickly. But for Jim Brady, the next year would bring him close to death at least three times, and his life would be spent adjusting to a brain injury that also left him partially paralyzed.

From his recliner in his sun-filled family room in Rehoboth Beach, Del., he can see the Atlantic Ocean. The Bradys moved permanently to Rehoboth seven years ago and say they do not miss Washington. The last time he visited was in June 2004, for the funeral of Reagan, a man they speak of warmly. For years, the Reagans telephoned Brady every year on his birthday.

The anniversary of the shooting brings a certain trepidation -- the Bradys know they will have to relive the television footage. They will be asked once more what they think of would-be assassin John W. Hinckley Jr., who was found not guilty by reason of insanity and has spent the past 25 years in a mental hospital. Recently, a federal judge granted Hinckley overnight visits with his parents, who live in Williamsburg -- where Sarah Brady attended the College of William and Mary. The Bradys, who have many friends there, visit Williamsburg often.

"We both believe strongly that he was mentally . . . " Sarah Brady began.