Former US President Donald Trump’s former physician, Ronny Jackson, announced on Saturday that Trump is recovering as expected from a gunshot wound to his ear sustained last week. Jackson noted intermittent bleeding and mentioned that Trump might require a hearing exam.
The bullet, fired by an attempted assassin at a July 13 Trump rally in Pennsylvania, came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head” before striking the top of Trump’s right ear, stated Jackson, a Republican congressman from Texas who served as physician to Presidents Trump and Barack Obama.
Five days after narrowly escaping assassination, Trump accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination for the Nov. 5 election on Thursday.
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Jackson, providing the first public description by a medical professional of Trump’s gunshot wound, detailed in a letter posted on social media Saturday that “the bullet track produced a 2-centimeter wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear.”
“There was initially significant bleeding, followed by marked swelling of the entire upper ear. The swelling has since resolved, and the wound is beginning to granulate and heal properly,” he wrote.
Jackson mentioned he had been providing daily evaluation and treatment of Trump’s wound since the shooting. While no sutures were required, he noted that due to the “highly vascular nature of the ear, there is still intermittent bleeding requiring a dressing to be in place.”
“He will have further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing exam, as needed,” Jackson added.
Trump recounted the assassination attempt to a captivated audience on Thursday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, attributing his survival to “the grace of Almighty God.”
“I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear,” he said, with a thick bandage still covering his ear. “I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.’”
