Results tagged “surgery”

Ed Koch just loves his moments in the sun. A week after the former mayor was sharing about cursing out New Yorkers heckling him in the grocery store, last night he was going off about his wild hallucinations at Columbia Pres while recovering from his recent quadruple bypass surgery. Koch told a crowd at the 92nd Street Y Monday, ”I thought I was captured by Japanese terrorists...When they cut off my thumbs, I knew it wasn’t real because there was no blood and no pain. I was daydreaming. I apologize to the Japanese. I know they’re great allies. I’m only telling you what I experienced.” CityRoom says Koch also mentions the terrorists spoke to him with a Yiddish accent. It sounds like if you ask the Columbia doctor's "how he's doing" in terms of showing his gratitude for the intensive surgery, they'd say pretty well. Koch is taking his 20 doctors out to dinner at Peter Luger Steak House in Williamsburg tonight. (One declined because he's Kosher.) As for the 72 nurses and technicians who aided him, they got the gift of an obligatory read with Koch sending them one of the 16 books he's written.

Look, it's not brain surgery—if you've got an important appointment, make a note of it in your calendar. Yet one big shot neurosurgeon at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island apparently had better things to do on April 10th, when he left his patient all prepped for surgery with nowhere to go. (To be fair, it can be difficult to get a good tee time at Fresh Meadow Country Club.) Dr. Paolo Bolognese, who reportedly makes about $2.4 million a year, was suspended for two weeks from the hospital after leaving his anesthetized female patient out cold on the operating table with her head shaved. It's unclear where exactly he was, and when staffers failed to locate Bolognese, they turned to chief of neurosurgery Thomas Milhorat ($7.2 million a year). But he refused to step in because the patient wasn't his. So Milhorat was also suspended, but the two MIA MDs seem to be making the best of it; a hospital receptionist tells the News they're in Italy attending a medical conference and, naturally, can't be reached.

It's barely March, but it's fair to say that Alex Rodriguez is not having the best year ever. After reports surfaced yesterday that an MRI showed that tightness he was experiencing in his hip stemmed from a cyst, now word is that the cyst will require surgery that will keep A-Rod out for ten weeks. ESPN learned of this from his brother who told them that surgery to remove the cyst is scheduled for Monday in Colorado. Joe Rodriguez said, "It's a big blow for the whole family. Alex is destroyed. But the most important thing is to have a successful surgery so that Alex may continue his career." The procedure obviously means that A-Rod is out for the World Baseball Classic as well as more than a month of the Yankees inaugural year in their new ballpark. And to add insult to injury, just today the Daily News ran a feature of A-Rod's 10 biggest foot in his mouth quotes—our favorite being his allusion to nightly slumber parties with Derek Jeter.

The bad news: The Mets' closer Billy Wagner needs surgery to repair his torn MCL in his left elbow, which MLB.com writes will possibly end "his season and possibly his career," since recovery time is "approximately one year." The (sort of) good news: Mets fans won't be tortured by his inconsistent outings. General manager Omar Minaya said, "That was a scenario that I was not expecting," and Wagner had said yesterday that he felt a lot better. Wagner's contract runs through next year (which is worth $10.5 million), and there's also an option for 2010 ($8 million). The Daily News point outs that while Wagner will be missed, "they have played well without him for the past month, too."