Dr. Robert Pape was head of the Brackenridge Hospital’s emergency room in August 1966. On the day of the shooting, he was at work.
Pape says the day began normally but then an intern interrupted the midday meeting to let the staff know a shooting was happening at the UT campus.
Pape remembers an ambulance driver shot near Sheftall’s Jewelry Store on “The Drag” was the first to come in to the hospital. That man survived. He also remembers treating Claire Wilson James — who was eight months pregnant when she was shot in the abdomen.
“The pregnant girl was in imminent danger of dying also so they had to worry about her,” Pape says. “Sent her directly to surgery.”
Pope says hospital staff was thankfully somewhat prepared for the event because they had done a mock shooting event triage only the week before the UT Tower shooting.