(NewsNation) — President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for “the nation’s doctor,” Janette Nesheiwat, was inspired to go into medicine after a gun accident in her childhood.
At 13 years old, Nesheiwat accidentally knocked over a handgun, which fired and shot her father in the head. The details of the February 1990 tragedy were first reported Friday by The New York Times.
Nesheiwat reached for a fishing tackle box on a shelf above the bed where her father lay sleeping. But instead of picking it up, she accidentally knocked it — and a .380 caliber handgun — over.
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“Something fell out of it and there was a loud noise,” she told police, per documents reviewed by the outlet. “I saw blood on my father’s ear.”
She also told police that she’d gotten her father a towel and ice before calling 911, according to reporting from The Orlando Sentinel. Responding officers described the incident as an “accidental shooting.”
Ziad “Ben” Nesheiwat was hospitalized and died a day later.
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Nesheiwat has referenced her father’s passing publicly multiple times, though she has never mentioned her connection to the accident.
In the first sentence of her memoir “Beyond the Stethoscope: Miracles in Medicine,” which will be released in December, she wrote, “When I was 13 years old, I helplessly watched my dear father dying from an accident as blood was spurting everywhere. I couldn’t save his life.”
She points to that moment as the inspiration for a life devoted to saving others, writing, “This was the start of my personal journey in life to become a physician and enter the world of healing arts.”
Nesheiwat will need to be confirmed by the Senate. If confirmed, she will replace Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who in July declared firearm violence in America a public health crisis.
Who is Janette Nesheiwat?
She is listed as a contributor on Fox News’s website, which says that she currently serves as a medical director at CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey.
Nesheiwat is a double board-certified medical doctor and graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, according to her website. Her website notes that she has led medical relief missions in Haiti, Ukraine and Africa.
NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report.
