BOSTON (AP) – The wife of Chilean President Ricardo Lagos underwent surgery in Boston on Wednesday to correct a narrowing of her trachea, Lagos said.
Lagos said his wife, Luisa Duran, went into surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital at about 6 a.m. Wednesday, and the operation lasted about four hours.
The operation went “satisfactorily,” the president said at a news conference in Boston.
She was expected to be in the hospital about 10 days, he said.
The hospital said Dr. Douglas Mathisen, chief of general thoracic surgery, removed the damaged area and repaired Duran’s trachea.
The delicate procedure involved establishing an airway by stretching the narrowed area, removing the damaged trachea, and then rebuilding the trachea by sewing the healthy ends together.
The hospital said in a statement that Duran was “doing well, breathing comfortably and speaking with her family.”
The first lady had been at home for about a month after she was diagnosed with the condition known as tracheal stenosis.
AP-ES-10-01-03 1920EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
