Charles Rufus Baxter (November 4, 1929 – March 10, 2005) was an American doctor.
Baxter was one of the doctors who unsuccessfully tried to save U.S. President John F. Kennedy after he was shot in Dallas, Texas, in 1963.
He is also remembered for the Parkland formula, which gives an indication of how much fluid should be given to a patient with burns.
[1] Baxter was the emergency room director at Parkland Memorial Hospital when Kennedy was shot, and famously said of the event in 1988: As soon as we realized we had nothing medical to do, we all backed off from the man with a reverence that one has for one's president, and we did not continue to be doctors from that point on.
[2]He also operated on Texas Governor John Connally, who had been wounded in the attack.