Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Over on McAdams' forum, Steve Berber said that JFK's hands never went anywhere near his neck or tie, but that is obviously not true. Gil Jesus points out that, above, it looks like Kennedy may be trying to cough up a bullet. Putting aside the issue of the bullet, it certainly looks like he's got his right hand over his mouth as if to cough. Is that an automatic reflex reaction to a spinal injury? Of course not.  

Was he pulling on his tie with his left hand? It certainly looks like he could have been. Here is how his tie was:

It looks pretty tight up there. After he was shot in the throat, the immediate issue for him was breathing. I could see that he would think that pulling on the tie would help. But maybe he was pulling on the whole shirt. His hand looks clenched. 

This video of Gil Jesus is so good, that you really need to watch it if you haven't. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpFHYwot6bk

JFK was shot from the front in the throat with a small caliber bullet. The bullet went through the windshield of the limo. JFK reacted immediately, and it was him using his muscles under voluntary control. The notion that everything we see him doing was an involuntary reflex in response to a spinal cord injury is ridiculous. 

There is no evidence that JFK had a spinal cord injury. And if it was an injury to the spinal nerves, it would only have been on one side. So, why would both arms go up? 

In Medicine, it is believed that spasticity after spinal cord injury is due hypersensitivity of the stretch reflex. "Spasticity is usually defined as a velocity-dependent increase in the tonic stretch reflex (muscle tone) with exaggerated tendon jerks, clonus, and spasms, resulting from the hyperexcitability of the stretch reflex." 

However, spasticity is not the immediate reaction to spinal cord injury. "Spasticity develops gradually over several months after spinal cord injury. Immediately following it, the spinal cord becomes areflexic (spinal shock), a period characterized by loss of tendon reflexes below the level of the lesion, muscle paralysis, and flaccid muscle tone." 

It generally takes weeks after spinal cord injury for spasms to appear.  "Weeks after injury, various reflexes such as the tendon reflex, the flexor withdrawal reflex, and the Babinski sign appear."

These are all indications of what is called "upper motor neuron syndrome" but it doesn't occur immediately. But, with JFK, we are talking about an immediately reaction. As he disappeared behind the Stemmons freeway sign, he was fine. When he emerged from it, he was in full-blown reaction. But, it was not a series of involuntary stretch reflexes, rather, it was him initiating voluntary muscular action.

And it wasn't anything Thorburn-like. Thorburn's patient was in a coma, and his reaction 5 days later was very limited, not a global response like we see on Kennedy. 

In fact, JFK engages in so much muscular activity involving so many different muscles, that you know he didn't suffer a spinal cord injury. He would have been unable to do the things we see him doing if he had. 

The term "Thorburn position" was a term invented by Dr. John Lattimer. There were no prior references to it in Medicine. Is it real? Do patients with C5/C6 transverse destruction of the spinal cord have delayed spasms of their biceps and deltoid muscles? If they do, then why hasn't it been seen and reported in other such patients?

In reality, it was one of those rare events that is rare that NO principles or conclusions can be drawn from it. The best word that can be applied to it is: "fluke". 

Again, when else and where else in the field of Medicine has "Thorburn position" been used except in the JFK assassination?

At that point, Kennedy wasn't hurt that bad, and by that, I simply mean that his injuries weren't life-threatening. He had a bullet in his back that barely penetrated. It may have been an ice bullet. If not, it was some kind of dud. But, it didn't go through him; it didn't hit bone; and it had very little importance, medically speaking. 

The other shot was to his throat from the front, and the immediate threat from that was interference with his breathing. But assuming he could get enough air, and apparently he could, then he was managing. Of course, when he was hit with the fatal head shot, it was all over. But prior to that, JFK had NO spinal cord injury. He did NOT go into a conglomeration of stretch reflexes- which is ridiculous. He was not exhibiting a "Thorburn position" or a Thorburn reaction."  He was just a guy who was reacting to being shot in the throat.