Like Ahsan Iqbal, 7th US President Jackson also had a bullet inside body

LAHORE: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, who survived an assassination attempt Sunday evening, now, features in a rare two-member club of distinguished personalities -- along with 7th American President Andrew Jackson -- who had bullets lodged inside their bodies after being unsuccessfully shot at.

While the bullet that struck Ahsan Iqbal had fractured his right arm before ricocheting and lodging in his abdomen, President Jackson (1767-1845) was hit in the chest. The bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it could not be removed. Known for his quick and violent temper, a very lucky Jackson was actually shot twice in his lifetime. He served as US President from 1829 to 1837.

He was incidentally the first American President to experience an assassination attempt in 1835. But this time around, the two guns of Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter, had misfired in quick succession. Lawrence was most likely a mentally unstable individual with no connections to Jackson’s political rivals, but Jackson was convinced that Lawrence had been hired by his opponents.

According to "History”, a history-based American digital cable and satellite television network, Jackson’s suspicions were never proven and Lawrence spent the rest of his life in a mental institution.

Study of a book "Real life at the White House: 200 years of daily life at America's most famous residence," written by John Whitcomb and Claire Whitcomb, reveals that in 1806, Andrew Jackson had to enter an arranged fight (a duel) with matched weapons and in accordance with agreed-upon rules with a man called Charles Dickinson to save his wife Rachel's honour.

Jackson, who had gained fame as a general in the American Army and had served in both houses of US Congress before being elected to the presidency, was deeply upset over attacks on his wife's honour by Charles Dickinson, who had published an attack on Jackson in a local newspaper.

Actually, when Jackson fell in love with Rachel, she was the estranged wife of Lewis Robards, who informed his wife that he had started divorce proceedings. Rachel and Andrew Jackson were married in 1791, unaware that Lewis meanwhile had dropped the proceedings.

Two years later they were shocked to learn that Lewis was now asking for a divorce on the grounds of his wife’s adulterous second marriage. Though they had married in good faith, Andrew and his wife were to be plagued until the end of their lives by the circumstances surrounding Rachel’s separation and remarriage.

The divorce eventually was granted, and in 1794 the Jacksons went through a second ceremony. Jackson’s enemies, in addition to their other charges against him in political campaigns, always dropped innuendoes that he had married an adulterous.

Dickinson was on the forefront, airing slurring remarks about Rachel in public. A duel was thus arranged in May 1806 between Jackson and Dickinson. Since Dickinson was considered an expert shot, Jackson determined it would be best to let Dickinson turn and fire first, hoping that his aim might be spoiled in his quickness.

The guns, with seven-inch barrels, were loaded with deadly one-ounce 70-caliber lead bullets. Dickinson hit Jackson in the chest from a mutually-agreed distance of 24 feet. The bullet tore a large hole in Jackson’s coat. He felt a searing pain in his chest and clutched his side with his left hand.

The bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it could not be removed. The bullet had actually shattered Jackson's chest wall, breaking a couple of ribs and embedding itself deep in the left lung.

Under the rules of dueling, Dickinson had to remain still on the venue as Jackson took aim and shot at him. The bullet had hit Dickinson squarely in the abdomen, tearing through his intestines. Dickinson died that night after a day of agony.

Jackson, on the other hand, did not want Dickinson’s cohorts to know he was badly hurt. Refusing help, he mounted his horse and travelled a distance of 40 miles in precarious condition.

According to the "Washington Post," Jackson's political foes called it a brutal, cold-blooded killing and saddled Jackson with a reputation as a violent, vengeful man. He became a social outcast.

Back home Jackson’s doctors told him how serious the wound was. Dickinson’s bullet had missed his heart. The heavy lead bullet was to remain in Jackson’s chest as a life-long memento of the duel—a wound that never healed for 39 years till his death. No surgeon of that time dared to remove the ball from its dangerous position near the heart.

Jackson remained in bed for a month after the duel until his wound had closed superficially and he had recovered from loss of blood. After this fateful affair of honour, Jackson suffered from ever-recurring attacks of chills and fever, pain in the chest, followed by coughing and hemorrhages from the lungs.

Brief history of Jackson's youth: At 16, Andrew Jackson had inherited 300 to 400 Pounds Sterling from his wealthy Irish grandfather. This sum he spent on high living, gambling, and horses.

After a short period at school he decided to study law, relying on the standard law books for his theoretical training. He served as clerk for two attorneys, and obtained enough practical experience to be admitted to the bar within two years. Soon afterward, at 21, he was appointed prosecutor at the court of Nashville. It was here at Nashville that the great romance of Andrew Jackson’s life had begun. He fell in love with Rachel, daughter of a boarding house owner.

In 1813, Jackson got mixed up in another gun battle. He was shot from behind by the brother of his enemy, Thomas Benton.

This bullet had shattered his left upper arm at the shoulder joint, causing an open compound fracture.

The blood stopped only after two mattresses had been soaked through and the patient’s blood pressure had dropped to shock level. All the doctors except one advised Jackson to have his shattered arm amputated in order to save his life. The one who was against amputation probably thought it was too late.

Jackson refused to have his arm cut off. And, throughout all his life, he fooled the doctors, keeping arm and life both.

An inevitable infection of the bone set in, which became chronic and plagued Jackson for the next 19 years, in addition to his pulmonary abscess. The shoulder wound would close at times and the break open again. It did not heal completely until 1832, when the lead bullet was finally cut out.

By the way, as research shows, a bullet in body of an 88-year-old man was removed in February 2008 after 70 years.

Faustino Olivera was shot in the Spanish Civil War. Olivera had spent most of his life oblivious to the bullet that had been lodged in his left shoulder blade since he was shot with a rifle in November 1938.

Doctors first operated on him then but found no bullet. A couple of years later, he again saw a doctor because of sharp pains in his left side. The X-rays detected the bullet, and physicians said it was causing an infection and inflammation, and thus his pain.

The bullet was left in him because it was close to an artery. The doctors delicately extracted the bullet once and for all. Olivera said he had given the bullet to his nephew as a souvenir.

(Reference: Spain's premier radio network La Cadena SER)

Similarly, in another similar incident, a former British Royal Navy Commando, Robert Mitchell, was shocked when doctors had retrieved a bullet that had been lodged in his leg for 40 years. He was injured in two separate battles in the Far East during the 1970s.

According to April 13, 2012 edition of "Daily Mail," the war hero had actually gone for a routine surgery for a groin pain.

The British newspaper had stated: "Robert Mitchell was later awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for bravery but continued to feel pain in his groin. Surgeons at Torbay Hospital in Devon pulled the inch-long bullet out of Mitchell's leg during the procedure. The grandfather-of-four, who now wears the lucky steel cartridge around his neck, said: 'I could not believe it - it never occurred to me that I could have a bullet still inside my leg."

And then, according to the May 27, 2009 edition of the "Daily Mail," a Chinese woman had gone under the knife to allow doctors to remove a bullet that was embedded in her skull 42 years ago in 1967 during China's Cultural Revolution.

It goes without saying, as a February 13, 2017 report of the "CNN" had mentioned, that bullet fragments that remain lodged in the body can be an important cause of lead poisoning.

The "CNN" had cited a research report of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The esteemed American television had further gone on to state: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that, overall, less than one per cent of cases of adults with elevated blood lead levels were caused by retained bullet fragments. However, for those with the highest blood lead levels, nearly five per cent of cases could be linked to bullets."

The television channel, while quoting Dr. Alan Cook, director of trauma research at Chandler Regional Medical Center in Arizona, had maintained: "Very often, the bullets are not removed in the (hospital) setting because doing so would potentially cause more harm to the patient than the bullet has already done."