NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s campaign released an update on the former president’s health on Saturday, a week after he survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The memo from Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, a staunch supporter who served as Trump’s physician in the White House, offers new details about the nature of the GOP candidate’s injuries and the treatment he received immediately after the attack.

It is the most thorough account yet of the former president’s condition since the night of the shooting, which also left one participant dead and two others wounded.

According to Jackson, Trump suffered a gunshot wound to his right ear, which was “less than a quarter inch from his head and struck the top of his right ear.”

The bullet trajectory, he said, “caused a 2cm wide wound extending to the cartilage surface of the ear. There was significant initial bleeding followed by marked swelling of the entire upper portion of the ear.”

Although the swelling has gone down and the wound is “starting to granulate and heal nicely,” Trump said he still experiences occasional bleeding, requiring the bandages displayed at the Republican National Convention last week.

“Given the wide and blunt nature of the wound itself, sutures were not necessary,” Jackson wrote.

Trump was initially treated by medical staff at Butler Memorial Hospital. According to Jackson, “doctors performed a thorough evaluation for additional injuries, including a CT scan of his head.”

Trump, he said, “will undergo further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing exam, if necessary. He will follow up with his primary care physician as directed by the physicians who initially evaluated him,” he wrote.

“In short, former President Trump is doing well and is recovering as expected from the gunshot wound he sustained last Saturday afternoon,” he added.

Jackson wrote in the letter that as Trump’s former physician, he was concerned and had traveled to Bedminster, New Jersey, where Trump had flown late Saturday night after returning from Pennsylvania, “to personally check on him and offer to assist him in any way I can.”

He said he has been with Trump since then, evaluating and treating his wound daily, and that he would remain with Trump through the weekend, including a trip to Michigan, where Trump held his first rally since the shooting with his new running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio. At Saturday’s rally, the white gauze on Trump’s ear was replaced with a flesh-colored bandage.

Jackson appears to be licensed to practice medicine in Florida, according to a state health department database. Records from the American Board of Emergency Medicine also show that Jackson has a board certification in emergency medicine, valid through the end of 2025.

A spokesman for the congressman declined to immediately respond to questions about the status of his license. Trump’s campaign also did not immediately respond to questions.

Last year, on President Joe Biden’s 81st birthday, Trump’s campaign released a letter from Dr. Bruce A. Aronwald, a New Jersey physician who said he had been the former president’s physician since 2021.

Trump’s campaign and federal law enforcement released little information about his condition or treatment in the days after the attack, refusing to release medical records or hold briefings with doctors who treated him at the hospital.

‘One in a billion’

Trauma surgeon Babak Sarani, who said he has treated other patients with wounds from AR-15-style assault rifles, said the description in the letter “matches exactly what you would expect from a bullet wound.”

While indirect damage is still generally low, he said the risk of major harm is greater than if another weapon were used.

“If a bullet from a low-caliber handgun whizzes past your ear, it’s not a big deal. … You get a headache or feel dizzy, like you’ve got a bad concussion,” said Sarani, chief of trauma at George Washington Hospital in Washington. “But if it’s from an assault rifle, the energy is higher, the range is wider, and you’re more likely to bruise.”

He added: “In Trump’s case, he was very lucky. Most of the energy was released into the air. If it had hit him in the head, we would have had a very different conversation.”

Former Secret Service agent Rich Staropoli said the AR-15-style rifle used by the shooter fires a 5.56 millimeter bullet at such high velocities — more than 2,000 miles per hour — that the air pressure alone as it passes through could cause extensive damage.

“The shock wave alone could have ripped his ear off,” Staropoli said of Trump. “It’s amazing that the bullet hit him” and didn’t cause any other damage.

“It’s a one in a billion case,” he added. A fraction of a millimeter closer, “and this would be a different story. It’s really unbelievable how thin the line is here between a cut and devastating physical damage.”

According to Dr. Kenji Inaba, chief of trauma and surgical intensive care at the University of Southern California, a follow-up evaluation by Trump’s physician, including an evaluation of his mental health, was appropriate.

“Clearly any injury, no matter how minor, when intentional is associated with some degree of post-traumatic stress, so this should also be a consideration for his medical team,” Inaba said in an email.

Contributing: Janie Har and Cedar Attanasio