[1]
By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with [2]
In following up the last report [3], new information has become available on the brain scanning which was conducted on Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, following an attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania.
This is despite a comprehensive and long lasting blackout which began with the US Secret Service and other US government agencies then under President Joseph Biden, and also the Trump election campaign staff.
National media reporters who followed up with several days of investigation in Pennsylvania now say they were focused on the assassin, Thomas Crooks. He was shot dead at the scene and according to reporters in the area, his body was taken to Pittsburgh, reportedly to the Alleghany County Medical Examiner’s Office. The location of Butler – the scene of the shooting, Crooks’ death, and Trump’s hospitalization – is not in Alleghany County. Butler does not have a medical examiner; it has an elected coroner [4].
Trump’s treatment at the Butler Memorial Hospital included a CT scan, according to several contemporaneous reports. The hospital officials cited by the press at the time were the hospital president, Karen Allen, and the chief of emergency medicine at the hospital, Dr David Rottinghaus. They said that had been prior emergency planning by the US Secret Service with hospital staff going back several years, and a few days before the Trump rally. A local CBS affiliate reporter, Chris Hoffman, talked to Allen and Rottinghaus who told [5] him that “from the time the call came in to when the Secret Service cleared the hospital, it was about three hours.”
Another local source identified [6] “Jenna Enscoe, the hospital’s director of emergency services” as having participated in the months of prior planning and as a volunteer at the Trump rally. After Trump was taken to the hospital, most of the hospital staff were ordered to leave. “Following Secret Service instructions, most of the staff had to wait outside the building during the lockdown. A shift change was taking place a the same time, but the incoming staff was not allowed to enter the building.”
[7]Butler Memorial Hospital, left to right: hospital director, Karen Allen; chief of emergency medicine, Dr David Rottinghaus; director of emergency services, Jenna Enscoe.
After Trump’s treatment, the hospital management and staff were visited [6] by US Government officials. “Staff was debriefed by the Secret Service and U.S. Department of Homeland after Trump left, and the hospital reviewed the events of the day… During the debriefing, federal officers told the hospital what to expect, which included threats. The hospital was told which threats to forward to federal authorities and which to forward to local police.”
During his brief time at the hospital Trump was given a CT scan of the brain. This has been reported by many sources and confirmed by an official letter, issued on July 20, 2024 [8], by the Trump campaign from Dr Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician.
[9]According [10] to Jackson, the medical staff at Butler Memorial Hospital “provided a thorough evaluation for additional injuries that included a CT of his [Trump’s] head. He will have further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing exam, as needed. He will follow up with his primary care physician, as directed by the doctors that initially evaluated him.”
Trump’s primary care physician at that time has been reported to have been Dr Kevin O’Connor, a retired Army colonel who began serving in the White House Physician’s Office in 2006 [11]. He was promoted to become President Joseph Biden’s chief physician at the start of his term in January 2021 and he remained in that post until the end of his term. O’Connor has refused [12] to testify to Congress on Biden’s mental condition, based on the doctor-patient privilege and his rights under the Fifth Amendment.
It is unclear what medical relationship O’Connor may have had with Trump in July 2024; it is certain he will not speak about it.
The doctors who treated Trump at the Butler hospital on July 13, 2024 [13], have remained silent. “The hospital and Trump’s campaign have not released the name of the specific physician who attended to him. Dr. David Rottinghaus, an emergency room physician at Butler Memorial, commented on the hospital’s response but explicitly stated he did not treat Trump himself and would not discuss his condition or treatment. Outcome: No named attending physician is publicly identified.”
[14]A detailed report by Dr Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent and a practising neurosurgeon, (right) said on July 20, 2024 [15]: “The concern is that gunshot blasts near the head can cause injuries that aren’t immediately noticeable, such as bleeding in or on the brain, damage to the inner ear or even psychological trauma. As a trauma neurosurgeon, I have seen how a thorough evaluation after any kind of gunshot wound can provide a complete picture and lead to a speedier recovery.”
Gupta added in confirmation at the time: “A source familiar with the matter told CNN on Sunday that Trump underwent a number of ‘routine’ tests at the hospital, including a CT scan that came back normal.” But CNN and all other media were blocked. “CNN has repeatedly reached out to the Trump campaign and Butler Memorial Hospital, where Trump was treated, for more information but has not received further details about his condition or care. CNN reached out to the Trump campaign for comment again Thursday.”
For the hospital, Gupta quoted [15] Rottinghaus “who did not treat Trump himself and would not comment on Trump’s treatment or condition, said he came to the hospital shortly after the shooting to help triage patients. ‘We do prepare for incidents like this. We had had advanced visits in the past for rallies when Mr. Trump was here. The last was the end of 2020. We have worked with the Secret Service in the past and local and federal law enforcement to come up with plans about if an incident like this happened.’”
According to Gupta, the blackout of medical information prevented public understanding of Trump’s medical condition. “While all the attention has been on his ear and right side of his head, that doesn’t mean other injuries may not be present. It’s not even clear that he was struck by a primary projectile from the rifle, a secondary projectile or a combination of both. Sometimes, it can be difficult to know without an in-depth evaluation. We do know that the shooter used an AR-15-style weapon, and in my experience in the operating room, I’ve witnessed the kind of trauma this weapon can cause. The kinetic energy of it is significant: A rifle like the AR-15 can produce up to 1,300 foot-pounds of force. With that much power close to the head, there can be injuries beyond what’s visible.”
“For example, a fracture to the thin bone in that region of the skull, an epidural hematoma (or bleeding between the skull and the brain) and damage to the bones of the inner ear, which can result in hearing loss, vertigo or dizziness. A CT scan can usually detect such injuries, but they aren’t always immediately apparent. As a result, sometimes patients are observed in the hospital and may even undergo a repeat CT scan [15].” Trump’s time in the hospital was too short for the standard medical observation or for a second CT scan, or an MRI scan which is used to examine damage to the soft tissues of the brain [16].
Gupta’s prediction of a year ago was corroborated by the Jackson letter’s reference to “further evaluations” and “follow up with his primary care physician, as directed by the doctors that initially evaluated him.” That these evaluations, including CT and MRI scanning, have been undertaken for Trump is likely; that the results have been withheld from public release is certain.
The Butler Memorial Hospital doctors will have viewed the CT scan images and the radiologist’s report. A year later, they are direct sources for answering questions about what the CT scan showed. Now, in retrospect, as Trump’s symptoms on public display suggest white matter disease (WMD [3]), the central question is whether the images of a year ago revealed the bright spot lesions indicating [17] WMD.
[18]Click on source for enlarged view: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ [17]
Butler Memorial Hospital (BMH [19]) has a total of 2,325 employees, of which about 1,000 are medical treatment professionals. BMH is part of a regional system of hospitals employing more than 1,000 physicians and advanced practice providers and 7,300 employees, According [19] to the hospital, its “ imaging services include computerized tomography (CT), medical resonance imaging (MRI), PET/CT, and digital mammography. Additional imaging services include ultrasound (sonography), nuclear medicine, bone density testing, x-rays and fluoroscopic studies. BMH’s imaging studies are interpreted by on-site board-certified radiologists trained in the following subspecialties: interventional radiology, women’s imaging, musculoskeletal imaging, body imaging, neuroradiology and advanced vein care.”
The listing of the hospital’s medical staff at Butler serving the emergency department includes Rottinghaus, four other doctors, and nine physician assistants [20]. Dr Thomas Raraigh is head of cardiology and imaging services [21].
Identifying which of them had, still has, direct knowledge of Trump’s CT brain images has been prevented by the hospital management and staff, acting under Secret Service and other federal government orders. After Trump himself says he took the CT scan images from the hospital, they are also in a position to know whether the digital records have been removed or erased, when, and on whose order.
There are three conclusions to be drawn for the time being. The first is that the records of Trump’s tests during his hospitalisation, including the CT scan, were probably removed from the hospital’s computer archive by Secret Service or Department of Homeland Security officials during their “debriefing” session with the hospital staff, after Trump’s departure.
The second conclusion is that Trump himself, acting on private medical advice, probably had a follow-up CT scan a few days after the incident, and possibly an MRI scan as well because the MRI provides better visualization of soft tissue injury, if any. This brain testing and imagery may not have been disclosed to the White House physician after Trump was inaugurated on January 20 or during Trump’s annual medical examination with Captain Sean Barbabella in April [22].
The third conclusion is that the Butler Memorial Hospital doctors and assistants who treated Trump have kept silent for over a year on what happened, what they saw, heard and believe, because they were ordered to keep silent by their superiors, and by US Government officials at the hospital before the incident; during and immediately after the incident; and ever since.
[23]Can such a sizeable number of hospital doctors and nurses – up to ten – be relied upon to follow orders and say nothing at all about Trump’s brain.Yes is the answer and it can be found in the staff, police, coroner’s court and public hearing records of Salisbury District Hospital, England, which have maintained a blackout on the clinical tests and medical condition of Sergei Skripal, Yulia Skripal, and Dawn Sturgess – in 2018 the alleged targets of the Russian chemical warfare weapon, Novichok. Their silence has lasted seven years to date. Read the book [24].