County Supervisor Herrity Recovering from Heart Surgery

Supervisor Pat Herrity, age 52, underwent open heart surgery at 7 a.m. Thursday at the Fairfax Inova Heart and Vascular Institute.

The surgery was conducted by Dr. Alan Spier and Dr. Niv Ad, two of the hospital's leading surgeons. At this time the surgeons have informed the family the surgery went as expected. Supervisor Herrity is currently recovering in the ICU.

Doctors Spier and Ad have advised Herry that post-surgery he can expect to be in ICU for a day or two, walking the hospital halls the next day or two, and out of hospital in four to six days. They also say it will take four to six weeks to fully recover.

In November 2011 Supervisor Herrity began having abnormal heart rhythms – atrial fibrillation (A-Fib). While A-Fib itself is not dangerous, and he did not have a heart attack or any heart damage, after further investigation it was discovered that he had an aortic aneurysm which can be dangerous. After consulting with his doctors, Supervisor Herrity made the decision to have both conditions addressed in surgery.

Although open heart surgery is never a thing to take lightly, prior to his surgery Supervisor Herrity was in good spirits. In a statement, he said:  “I am optimistic about the surgery and look forward to working towards a full recovery.  I am fortunate to be young for a heart surgery patient, I am active, regularly swimming and playing ice hockey, I have two world class surgeons performing the procedure, and I have the love and support of my wonderful family and many friends and supporters – it is truly amazing how many people have come up to me to wish me their best and tell me that they too have had heart surgery – it is very encouraging.”

Supervisor Herrity’s Communications Director John Nolan will be keeping interested parties updated with the Supervisor’s recovery through email,  Facebook and Twitter. To subscribe to those feeds please visit www.facebook.com/patherrity and www.twitter.com/patherrity.

Get well wishes may be mailed to Supervisor Herrity at his office, , 6140 Rolling Road, Springfield, VA 22152.

This information was provided to Patch by Supervisor Herrity's staff.