At 2:25 a.m. the doctors gave Eisenhower general anesthesia; at 2:59 Heaton made the first incision, and for two hours he snipped away at Eisenhower’s innards, searching for, then finding, and then cutting out the constricted portion of the ileum. It was for Heaton a familiar operation, one he had performed “scores of times.” But there could be no denying the tension in the room. At 5:00 in the morning Heaton finished his work and deemed the operation a success.
