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Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. VIII - Page 313« Previous | Next »

(Testimony of Capt. George Donabedian)

Mr. Ely.
And what did you say the treatment was?
Captain DONABEDIAN. The treatment was mineral oil, rectal suppository.
Mr. Ely.
All right. I would like to show you now an entry which is on page 40, but which is chronologically later than the one to which we just referred, and that is the entry dated----
Captain DONABEDIAN. 10-6--57. "Urethritis acute. Nonvenereal."
Mr. Ely.
Before we get into that, could we discuss the entry of 10-10-58?
Captain DONABEDIAN. "Sigmoidoscopy." I don't know what this number is, unless the number of the procedure. They discharged this man on 10-13-58.
Mr. Ely.
Do you believe that relates to the hemorrhoids?
Captain DONABEDIAN. He may have had some trouble with the lower bowel, or possibly some more bleeding, and they looked inside the rectum and the sigmoid to determine if there was any cause of the bleeding.
Mr. Ely.
I would like at this point to refer you to pages 152 through 156 of this exhibit.
I shall let you proceed to explain what these mean without questioning.
Captain DONABEDIAN. On 9-10-58, slight burning on urination. "Has urethral discharge."
Mr. Ely.
Well, if you cannot read it, there is no point----
Captain DONABEDIAN. Then they took a smear.
Mr. Ely.
What is the purpose of a smear?
Captain DONABEDIAN. A smear is to diagnose the cause of the infection, the cause of the discharge, to see what type of bacteria was present.
And on 9-23-58, report of a urethral discharge sensitivity test. A culture was taken and reported staphylococcal hemolytic. And the sensitivity test to determine what drug we have that will affect that particular bacteria that is causing this. And erythromycin was the drug of choice.
On page 154, on 16 September 58 he evidently went to one of the outlying dispensaries, and they said "Send to the mainside for smear," which means he was sent to the mainside dispensary to get the smear taken.
September 1958, the complaint was urethral discharge. They sent him to the lab for a smear.
And here it says, "Gram negative, diplococci intra- and extra-cellular morphological resembling neisseria gonococci."
Mr. Ely.
Could you tell us, Doctor, generally, what that means?
Captain DONABEDIAN. Well, this resembles the gonococcus bacteria which causes gonorrhea. And it says here morphologically resembling this germ--since the only legal diagnosis would be to have a culture made to prove this or disprove it.
And here for his treatment they gave him penicillin, it looks like 400,000 units, four times a day, for 3 days, and said "Return on Monday in the p.m., for a repeat smear."
Then on September 30, 1958, "Still has profuse discharge, somewhat clearer, received course of penicillin ending 2 days ago."
In other words, he had finished getting his penicillin. So for this profuse discharge, they treated him with chloromycetin capsules, one, four times a day, and return Monday for smear and culture. Then on September 22----
Mr. Ely.
I believe the last item was September 20.
Captain DONABEDIAN. Then September 22, 1958, urethral discharge, and it says "September 23" underneath-- "urethral discharge, smear and culture."
The smear showed many pus cells, no organisms noted. The culture showed micrococcus pyogenous vas aurens. This is the type of bacteria that gives a dark-greenish color discharge.
Mr. Ely.
Does either the results of the smear or the results of the culture say anything about whether or not Oswald had gonorrhea, or can we tell?
Captain DONABEDIAN. Not in this one.
The one above here, we assume he had gonorrhea---on the 16th.
Mr. Ely.
We would assume he had it, even though, as you pointed out, you could not prove it in court, because it was determined by a smear rather than a culture?
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