Buchanan Due for Heart Valve Surgery Today
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WASHINGTON — Conservative Patrick J. Buchanan, who just ended an unsuccessful campaign to deny President Bush renomination, will undergo elective heart surgery to replace a defective aortic valve, his sister said Thursday.
The former columnist and television commentator entered Washington Hospital Center Wednesday night and will undergo the surgery today to replace his aortic valve with a plastic one, said Angela (Bay) Buchanan, his sister and campaign manager.
She said the outlook for her brother, 53, is “excellent.”
“It is a common form of heart surgery,” said Dr. Sidney Levitsky, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Valve replacement is the second most common heart operation after heart bypass surgery, he said.
The combative Buchanan embarrassed Bush in the New Hampshire primary, drawing 37% of the vote. But that was his high point. He lost to Bush in every state, including in California on Tuesday.
He is thought to harbor presidential ambitions for 1996 and hopes to address the GOP convention in Houston in August.
Angela Buchanan said her brother was diagnosed a decade ago with a heart murmur, a condition probably due to “very severe” inflammatory arthritis he suffered in his early 20s.
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