What happened to Ken Paxton’s eye?
Ken Paxton’s right eye droops and is a different color from his left because of two injuries decades ago: one when he was 12 and one in college. That is his own account, given to the Houston Chronicle.
The childhood injury
Paxton told the Houston Chronicle in 2016 that when he was 12, another boy threw a berry at him during a game of hide-and-seek. The berry left him virtually blind and forced him to spend weeks immobile to save his vision. He said the treatment took a toll: he lost 30 or 40 pounds, had to learn to walk again and had to fight to stay in his grade. He later had surgery to try to correct the problem (Houston Chronicle).
The college injury
As a freshman at Baylor University, Paxton said, someone elbowed him in the right eye during a basketball game. The blow shattered facial bones, and doctors had to wire his skull back together, he said (Houston Chronicle).
Why does Ken Paxton’s eye droop?
According to Paxton, the drooping eyelid came from the childhood injury and the lazy eye from the college injury. The injuries and treatments left him with two different-colored eyes, the left green and the right brown, with the right shaded by a drooping lid, and permanent changes to his facial expressions (Houston Chronicle).
Is Ken Paxton blind in one eye?
His left eye remains his good eye, the Houston Chronicle reported. Published reporting does not say how much vision remains in his right eye.
Does Ken Paxton have a glass eye?
No credible reporting says he does. The Houston Chronicle’s account describes his own right eye, injured twice and now brown with a drooping lid. Claims of a glass eye circulate on websites that cite no evidence for them.
Everything on this page comes from Paxton’s own account of his injuries, as reported by the Houston Chronicle. It is not a medical assessment.
Sources
For his record in office, see Who is Ken Paxton? and the case files.