Dr. Janet Nesheiwat, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the U.S. Surgeon General, was 13 years old when she accidentally knocked over a gun and fired, fatally shooting her father in the head.
Neshewat's father died in February 1990 at his parents' home in Umatilla, Florida. reported The New York Times reported on Friday.
She said she was “in my father's bedroom at about 7:15 a.m., retrieving scissors from a fishing tackle box on a shelf above my father's bed,” according to a police report reviewed by The New York Times. . “When I opened the box, everything turned upside down,'' she said, adding that a gun fell out and fired, hitting her father in the head as he slept in his bed.
Nesheiwat's father, who immigrated from Jordan, died the next day in hospital.
She declined to discuss her role in the incident, but said her father's death inspired her to become a doctor. For the past 15 years, Mr. Neshewat has worked as an emergency physician for CityMD, a chain of for-profit clinics in the New York City area.
When the Covid-19 pandemic began, she began appearing regularly on FOX News as a medical contributor.
If her nomination is confirmed after President Trump takes office in his second term, Neshewat will replace Dr. Vivek Murthy.
Murthy was the first U.S. surgeon general to declare gun violence a public health crisis. in recommendationHe said firearms are now the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in the United States.
a graphic The report accompanying this recommendation explains how many of these deaths were unintentional, caused by firearms that were stored loaded or unlocked. did.
To address this crisis, Murthy called on the United States to ban automatic weapons, introduce universal background checks for gun purchases, regulate the industry, pass laws restricting the use of weapons in public, and It called for penalties for individuals who do not safely store personal information.
Republicans, along with House Republicans, oppose efforts to treat gun violence as a public health issue. vote In 2023, it will ban the Centers for Disease Control from researching gun violence. Republican Party too pushed To prevent public health agencies from passing gun control measures based on public health emergencies. tried Defunding programs aimed at reducing gun violence.
Murthy was fired by President Trump as the US Surgeon General during his inauguration in 2017, and was reappointed to the position in 2021 by outgoing President Joe Biden.
The New York Times reported that the first sentence of Neshewat's memoir, to be published in late December, will mention his father's death.
“When I was 13 years old, I watched helplessly as my beloved father died in an accident, blood splattered everywhere,” she wrote in Behind the Stethoscope: A Medical Miracle. I'm writing. “I couldn't save his life.
“This was the beginning of my life's journey to become a doctor and enter the world of healing arts.”
However, according to the New York Times, nowhere in the book's next 260 pages does it detail how the father died or whether he was shot.
The Orlando Sentinel provided further details in 1990, with a news article describing how his 13-year-old daughter knocked over a tackle box, causing the gun to fall and the bullet to hit Ziad “Ben” Neshewat in the head, killing him. did. fire.
After Neshewat did not respond to comments, Brian Hughes, a spokesman for President Trump's transition team, said in a statement to the New York Times, “As she describes in her book, her father's tragic death… She became a doctor because of her accidental death.” “She became a doctor to save lives, and her dedication to the lives of her fellow citizens is why President Trump has nominated Dr. Neshewat to be the next Surgeon General.
“She and her family miss their father and hope he is proud of them.”
