Army veteran Chris Mintz leaves hospital after being hailed as a hero in Oregon college shooting

Chris Mintz, the man credited with likely saving lives during the mass shooting at a college in southern Oregon last week, has been released from the hospital after treatment for multiple bullet wounds, the hospital said on Thursday.

Mercy Medical Center spokeswoman Kathleen Nickel did not say when he was released or give an update on his condition.

Mintz, an 30-year-old army veteran, blocked a gunman from entering a classroom at Umpqua Community College, his former girlfriend told Reuters last week. She said he was hit by seven bullets and lost a lot of blood, adding that he has rods in his legs and will be in a wheelchair until he learns to walk again.

The gunman, 26-year-old Chris Harper-Mercer, shot and killed nine people then himself in the deadliest burst of U.S. gun violence this year. The massacre devastated the close-knit timber town of Roseburg and reignited the national debate over gun control.

U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to travel to Roseburg on Friday for private meetings with families of the shooting's victims.

Mintz, who served in Iraq and is a mixed martial arts fighter, was taking classes to become a personal trainer. His son turned six on the day of the shooting.

(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Susan Heavey)