Mayor James Della Volpe successfully underwent quadruple bypass surgery at the Hospital at St. Raphael in New Haven Monday afternoon.
“Everything went well and he’s back in intensive care for recovery,” said Beth Lynch, Della Volpe’s government liaison.
Lynch said Della Volpe will likely be in the hospital recovering for the rest of the week. He will undergo then undergo rehabilitation.
Doctors found blocked arteries when Della Volpe underwent a heart catheterization and stress tests on Friday, and they immediately scheduled him for surgery Monday.
Della Volpe has had a heart attack before.
It’s not clear how long he will be out of work while he recovers from Monday’s surgery, Lynch said.
In the meantime, Board of Aldermen President Stephen Blume will be acting mayor.
Blume will likely be in City Hall each day this week because he is on vacation from his job as a teacher, Lynch said.
After that, Blume will likely check in during the day and come to city hall in the afternoon, Lynch said.
Blume wasn’t immediately available for comment Monday evening.
Lynch asked that all communications to Della Volpe continue to come through City Hall.
“We ask that people continue to pray for him,” Lynch said.
The Surgery
Here are details about bypass surgery from the American Heart Association’s Web site:
Surgeons take a segment of a healthy blood vessel from another part of the body and make a detour around the blocked part of the coronary artery.
An artery may be detached from the chest wall and the open end attached to the coronary artery below the blocked area.
A piece of a long vein in your leg may be taken. One end is sewn above the blocked area and the other end of the vein is attached or “grafted” to the coronary artery below the blocked area.
Either way, blood can use this new path to flow freely to the heart muscle.
A patient may undergo one, two, three or more bypass grafts, depending on how many coronary arteries are blocked.
After surgery, the patient is moved to a hospital bed in the cardiac surgical intensive care unit.
Heart rate and blood pressure monitoring devices continuously monitor the patient for 12 to 24 hours. A breathing tube (endotracheal tube) will stay in place until the physicians are confident that the patient is awake and ready to breathe comfortably on his or her own.
The patient may feel groggy and disoriented, and sites of incisions — both the chest and the leg, if a segment of blood vessel was taken from the leg — may be sore. Painkillers are given as needed.
Patients usually stay in the hospital for four to six days and sometimes longer. During this time, some tests will be done to assess and monitor the patient’s condition.
After leaving the hospital, the patient is usually enrolled in a physician-supervised program of cardiac rehabilitation. This program teaches stress management techniques and other important lessons (e.g., about diet and exercise) and helps people rebuild their strength and confidence.
For more information on the surgery, visit the American Heart Association’s Web site.