Obama gets 12 stitches after errant elbow to mouth

AP – President Barack Obama, with an ice pack over his mouth, looks out the second floor window of the White

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama needed 12 stitches in his upper lip after taking an errant elbow during a pickup basketball game Friday morning with family and friends visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday, the White House said.


First word of the injury came in a statement from press secretary Robert Gibbs nearly three hours after the incident. The White House did not initially name the person who caused the injury, but identified him later Friday as Rey Decerega, director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.


Obama received the stitches under local anesthesia in the doctor's office on the ground floor of the White House after returning home. Doctors used a smaller filament than typically used, which increases the number of stitches but makes a tighter stitch and leaves a smaller scar. ASSOCIATED PRESS