WASHINGTON — Fifty years ago this summer, the nation was transfixed by a medical drama that is now largely forgotten: the desperate struggle to save the life of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, the first baby born to a sitting president and first lady since the 19th century.

Five and a half weeks premature, delivered by Caesarean section on Aug. 7, 1963, at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Patrick weighed a relatively robust 4 pounds 10 1/2 ounces. But he immediately began having trouble breathing, three of his doctors recalled in recent interviews — the first they have given publicly.

His father, President John F. Kennedy, kept asking them, “Will he be retarded?,” one of the doctors said. (His younger sister Rosemary was born mentally retarded.)

With the answer unknowable, a senior physician directed attention to the medical team’s immediate role — saving Patrick’s life. It was a battle that would almost certainly have a different outcome today.