When the 64-year-old doctor rushed to the scene from his nearby clinic, minutes after Abe was killed on July 8, the lawmaker’s face was drained of blood from deep gunshot wounds to his neck.
“What struck me immediately was the tears on his face,” Nakaoka told Reuters by phone days after the assassination.
“When we massaged his heart, his body didn’t flinch. He was barely conscious and he was so pale that I immediately knew he was in critical danger.”
A doctor at his namesake clinic, Nakaoka said he sprang into action when a patient who had been present when Abe was shot rushed in, panicked, shouting at him to come help.
With his nurses, Nakaoka descended the three flights of stairs and the short distance to the stage. Someone who appeared to be close to Abe immediately handed him an automated external defibrillator (AED), but it didn’t turn on, he said.
One of his three nurses ran to the clinic to get another device.
But when he plugged it in Abe, a voicemail from the DEA said “not applicable,” Nakaoka said. This can happen when the heart is beating normally, or not at all.
The local fire department log published last week shows first responders assumed Abe was in cardiac arrest within minutes of the shooting.
Without further recourse, Nakaoka took turns with his nurses to manually pump Abe’s chest.
But with too much blood lost, there was little chance of resuscitation on the spot, he said.
“At the time, I was so desperate,” Nakaoka said.
Abe, 67, who gave a pre-election campaign speech in support of a party comrade, was unresponsive throughout the crash, Nakaoka said.
An ambulance arrived at 11:41 a.m., about 11 minutes after Abe collapsed, a Nara City Fire Department spokesman said.
“It seemed extremely long,” Nakaoka said. “He needed to get to a big medical center quickly, to stop the bleeding.”
The helicopter carrying Abe’s clinically dead body arrived at Nara Medical University Hospital – about 20 km (12 miles) away – at 12:20 p.m.
“When I think about it now, there were times when I had no idea what my body was doing,” Nakaoka said.
“What I remember very clearly is praying frantically for a miracle so that somehow this man – who was irreplaceable to Japan and the world – could be saved.”
Japan’s longest-serving prime minister was pronounced dead at 5:03 p.m.