DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
While looking through the (seemingly) endless array of fascinating documents and reports that occupy the sterling Mary Ferrell website, I took note of this "Medical Care" report on Lee Harvey Oswald while he was in the Marine Corps.
The medical report is part of Warren Commission Document 81.1 and pertains to the injury that Lee Oswald sustained on October 27, 1957, while he was in Japan. On that date, Oswald accidentally shot himself with a .45-caliber automatic pistol (although the report indicates that the bullet removed from Oswald's upper left arm "appeared to be a 22 slug").
But, IMO, the most interesting part of that particular medical report is the fact that we discover that the bullet was left inside Oswald's left arm for several days before it was removed. The report states that "the wound of entrance was allowed to heal and the missile was then excised through a separate incision two inches above the wound of entry".
The report also says that the surgery to remove the missile from Oswald's left arm occurred on "10-5-57" (October 5th), which has to be an error, because, via multiple documents (including the one linked above), we know the accident occurred on October 27, 1957. So any surgery to remove the bullet couldn't possibly have taken place 22 days BEFORE the incident occurred.
The report almost certainly should say "SURG: 11-5-57", instead of 10-5-57, which means that Oswald had the bullet inside him for 9 days before it was removed.
[For more information about the 1957 incident in which Oswald accidentally shot himself in the arm, consult Folsom Exhibit No. 1, page 111 (WC Volume 19, page 749). Also see Gerald Posner's "Case Closed" (1994 paperback edition), pages 22-23 and Vincent Bugliosi's "Reclaiming History", page 554.]
The main reason I'm bringing up this topic is because I thought it was kind of interesting. (And I also can't help but wonder why they had to wait nine days to take the bullet out of Oswald's arm. That seems a tad bit strange. But, then too, I'm not a trained medical professional. So what do I know?)
I also brought this incident up in order to point out the "October 5th" error that appears in the document. And it is just that kind of clerical error that is very common, even among some records and reports dealing with the JFK assassination. With a good example being: the Klein's Sporting Goods/First National Bank typo regarding an incorrect date.
There's a First National Bank receipt that is marked "February", when it really should say "March". And that's a typo that a lot of conspiracy theorists like to trump as PROOF that somebody was cooking the books in order to put the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle in the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald. But, in reality, it's the kind of mistake that happens practically every day.
And stuff like that happens every day because humans are very mistake prone.
David Von Pein
February 26, 2010
January 25, 2015
