John Lennon 02

"John Lennon's heart looked like everybody else's heart".

The main line that struck me in the documentary was that of the doctor who fought to revive Lennon after he was shot. Dr Steven Lynn’s was director of emergency services at New York’s Roosevelt Hospital that night. He recounted how he suddenly found himself commanding the race to save Lennon after a police officer staggered through the doors carrying his bleeding body. Lennon had been shot four times, one of the bullets rupturing his aorta.

'Two police officers came around the corner, one with the body on his shoulder. He was holding him, just like a fireman’s hold, and the other one yelled: "Gunshot wound, no vital signs,”' said Lynn.

'He was lifeless, he had no pulse, no blood pressure, he was unresponsive.'

Desperate to do what he could, despite the odds being apparently stacked against success, he opened up Lennon’s chest, closed his hand around his non-beating heart and attempted to massage it back to life. As fast as new blood was being pumped into his body, he says, it was simply pouring back out.

'After trying for about 10, 15, 20 minutes, it was clear that nothing could be done and John Lennon was pronounced dead,' he adds.

The bit that really struck me came at the very end when he said "John Lennon's heart looked like everybody else's heart". I suppose you somehow imagine that your hero is different but he is not. Lynn added "unfortunately, at the moment I found it, it was empty and devoid of blood and lifeless and not beating. But it was a good heart." (I got the impression that he meant it was in working order but he may have been being metaphorical - if so he was wrong, as Lennon's heart was indeed like everybody else's).