Center’s Kendrick Treated for Coronary Artery Block

Thomas R. Kendrick, Orange County Performing Arts Center executive director who suffered a mild heart attack Jan. 12, has undergone successful treatment for a blocked coronary artery, Center officials said Monday.

Kendrick, 52, was treated at Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach by means of “balloon dilation,” a non-surgical method for clearing the artery, officials said. He is expected to return home this week and to be back at work in several weeks, they said.

His physician, Dr. Darel Benvenuti, said the damage to Kendrick’s heart was minimal and that he has responded “remarkably well” to treatment.

Benvenuti said that after Kendrick was admitted to the hospital with chest pains, the pains recurred the next day, and it was decided to treat him with balloon dilation. Under this method, a balloon is inserted into the artery and inflated at the blocked area to reduce vessel obstruction, he said. Bypass surgery was ruled out since the obstruction was limited to the one artery, Benvenuti added.

There has been no recurrence of chest pains, Benvenuti said, and no further dilation or similar treatment is being contemplated.

Last September Kendrick assumed the post of executive director of the Orange County Center in Costa Mesa on a full-time basis. The Center’s 3,000-seat multipurpose theater is scheduled to open Sept. 29.

Orange County Center officials said Kendrick, who had been director of operations for nine years at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, was not known to have had any previous heart problems.

Kendrick’s top deputy, general manager Judith O’Dea Morr, is assuming his duties during his recovery.