“Unfortunately, I will have to limit my August activities. Part of my lung damaged by the 2017 assault had to be removed by surgery this weekend,” Sen. Rand Paul wrote on Twitter. congress Surgeons remove portion of Sen. Paul's lung damaged in 2017 assault

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul announced Monday that he underwent surgery over the weekend to have a portion of his lung removed, a lingering result of a 2017 violent altercation with one of his Kentucky neighbors.

“Unfortunately, I will have to limit my August activities. Part of my lung damaged by the 2017 assault had to be removed by surgery this weekend,” he wrote on Twitter. “The doctors, nurses, & staff at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were great. I should be able to return to the Senate in September.”


Paul’s injury was the result of an altercation with his neighbor in November 2017 over lawn maintenance. Paul said he was doing yardwork in his upscale Bowling Green, Ky., neighborhood when Rene Boucher tackled him from behind, fracturing five of the senator’s ribs.

Earlier this year, Paul traveled to Canada to undergo an outpatient procedure to treat a hernia related to the attack.

Unfortunately, I will have to limit my August activities. Part of my lung damaged by the 2017 assault had to be removed by surgery this weekend. The doctors, nurses, & staff at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were great. I should be able to return to the Senate in September — Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 5, 2019

Weeks later, a jury awarded Paul more than $580,000 in damages and medical expenses stemming from a lawsuit over the attack. Boucher had previously pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of Congress, a federal offense, and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

The Senate last week kicked off its yearly August recess and is not slated to reconvene until Sept. 9.

Paul’s announcement means that both of Kentucky’s senators are on the mend; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced over the weekend that he fractured his shoulder in a fall at his Kentucky home.

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