sister of John F. Kennedy

Rosemary Kennedy

"We went through the top of the head, I think she was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the skull. It was near the front. It was on both sides. We made a small incision, no more than an inch."

The instrument Dr. Watts used looked like a butter knife. He swung it up and down and cut the brain tissue.

"We put an instrument inside," he said.

As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lords prayer or sing " God Bless America" or count backwards..."We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded". When she began to become incoherent, they stopped.

When she was 23, her father arranged for her to have a lobotomy.

Saint Joseph Museums. Glore Hospital History. (2015).

http://stjosephmuseum.org/museums/glore/glore-hospital-history/