On Wings Of Eagles (1990)

Obviously it had to do with Paul and Bill; and if Perot could not talk about it on the phone, presumably it was something at least clandestine and quite possibly illegal.

In a way Taylor was glad, despite his fear of the mobs. While still in Tehran he had talked on the phone with Bill's wife, Emily Gaylord, and had promised not to leave without Bill. The orders from Dallas, that everyone but Briggs and Gallagher had to get out, had forced him to break his word. Now the orders had changed, and perhaps he could keep his promise to Emily after all.

Well, he thought, I can't walk back, so I'd better find a plane. He picked up the phone again.

Jay Coburn remembered the first time he had seen Ross Perot in action. He would never forget it as long as he lived.

It happened in 1971. Coburn had been with EDS less than two years. He was a recruiter, working in New York City. Scott was born that year at a little Catholic hospital. It was a normal birth and, at first, Scott appeared to be a normal, healthy baby.

The day after he was born, when Coburn went to visit, Liz said Scott had not been brought in for his feeding that morning. At the time Coburn took no notice. A few minutes later a woman came in and said: "Here are the pictures of your baby."

"I don't remember any pictures being taken," Liz said. The woman showed her the photographs. "No, that's not my baby."

The woman looked confused for a moment, then said: "Oh! That's right, yours is the one that's got the problem."

It was the first Coburn and Liz had heard of any problem.

Coburn went to see the day-old Scott, and had a terrible shock. The baby was in an oxygen tent, gasping for air, and as blue as a pair of jeans. The doctors were in consultation about him.

Liz became almost hysterical, and Coburn called their family doctor and asked him to come to the hospital. Then he waited.

Something wasn't stacking up right. What kind of a hospital was it where they didn't tell you your newborn baby was dying? Coburn became distraught.

He called Dallas and asked for his boss, Gary Griggs. "Gary, I don't know why I'm calling you, but I don't know what to do." And he explained.

"Hold the phone," said Griggs.

A moment later there was an unfamiliar voice on the line. "Jay?"

"Yes."

"This is Ross Perot."

Coburn had met Perot two or three times, but had never worked directly for him. Coburn wondered whether Perot even remembered what he looked like: EDS had more than a thousand employees at that time.

"Hello, Ross."

"Now, Jay, I need some information." Perot started asking questions: What was the address of the hospital? What were the doctors' names? What was their diagnosis? As he answered, Coburn was thinking bemusedly: does Perot even know who I am?

"Hold on a minute, Jay." There was a short silence. "I'm going to connect you with Dr. Urschel, a close friend of mine and a leading cardiac surgeon here in Dallas." A moment later Coburn was answering more questions from the doctor.

"Don't you do a thing," Urschel finished. "I'm going to talk to the doctors on that staff. You just stay by the phone so we can get back in touch with you."

"Yes, sir," said Coburn dazedly.

Perot came back on the line. "Did you get all that? How's Liz doing?"

Coburn thought: How the hell does he know my wife's name? "Not too well," Coburn answered. "Her doctor's here and he's given her some sedation ..."

While Perot was soothing Coburn, Dr. Urschel was animating the hospital staff. He persuaded them to move Scott to New York University Medical Center. Minutes later, Scott and Coburn were in an ambulance on the way to the city.

They got stuck in a traffic jam in the Midtown Tunnel.

Coburn got out of the ambulance, ran more than a mile to the toll gate, and persuaded an official to hold up all lanes of traffic except the one the ambulance was in.

When they reached New York University Medical Center there were ten or fifteen people waiting outside for them. Among them was the leading cardiovascular surgeon on the East Coast, who had been flown in from Boston in the time it had taken the ambulance to reach Manhattan.

As baby Scott was rushed inside, Coburn handed over the envelope of X rays he had brought from the other hospital. A woman doctor glanced at them. "Where are the rest?"

"That's all," Coburn replied.

"That's all they took?"

New X rays revealed that, as well as a hole in the heart, Scott had pneumonia. When the pneumonia was treated, the heart condition came under control.

And Scott survived. He turned into a soccer-playing, tree-climbing, creek-wading, thoroughly healthy little boy. And Coburn began to understand the way people felt about Ross Perot.