Doctors say Mike A fit to resume activities after ‘minor’ surgery

First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo is fit enough to resume his activities, including hosting the spouses of heads of state in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Cebu City next week, following an angioplasty to widen a clogged blood vessel at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, doctors said yesterday.

An angioplasty is a procedure of widening an obstructed blood vessel using a balloon catheter.

Dr. Juliet Cervantes, President Arroyo’s personal physician, described the medical procedure on Mr. Arroyo as a "minor one."

"Everything went okay," she told reporters as she was leaving the hospital.

Mr. Arroyo can be discharged tomorrow and can accompany the President to Cebu later this week when the Asean summit and the East Asia summit kick off, Cervantes said.

Undersecretary Juris Soliman, Mr. Arroyo’s chief of staff, said in a telephone interview the President’s husband has a heavy workload parallel to the summits, particularly hosting the spouses of the attending heads of state.

Mr. Arroyo is busy gathering more support for the Filipino athletes participating in the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, she added.

Soliman said cardiologist Dr. Romeo Saavedra was the one who undertook the procedure that lasted less than an hour, starting at around 6:30 a.m.

"The procedure is minor that a root canal takes a much longer time," she said.

The angioplasty was done near Mr. Arroyo’s groin, Soliman said.

Cervantes said Mrs. Arroyo watched the procedure from a television monitor in an adjacent room, along with Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo.

The President did not appear worried throughout the procedure, and that "she was confident everything would work out well, and true enough everything went smoothly," she added.

Mr. Arroyo was sedated and was "half-asleep" during the procedure but conscious enough to listen to instructions and briefly talked with the cardiology team prior to the angioplasty, Cervantes said.

Representative Arroyo said his father was drowsy after the procedure and fell asleep while they were talking.

Soliman said Mrs. Arroyo, her son Diosdado "Dato" Arroyo, and her brother-in-law Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, were among those who spent the night at the hospital since Saturday to accompany the First Gentleman.

Meanwhile, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye described reports that the President’s health is failing as "malicious rumors" and "products of over-imaginative minds."