LA PALMA : Duke Recovering From Heart Attack
City Councilman Orbrey Duke was removed from a respirator this week and is steadily improving after suffering a heart attack Oct. 21.
Doctors removed the respirator Tuesday morning, allowing Duke to take sips of ice water and a soft drink, which he had been craving, his daughter, Kim Smith, said Wednesday. Duke, 61, is listed in fair condition in the cardiac surgical unit of Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Los Angeles, where he suffered the heart attack while recovering from heart bypass surgery performed Oct. 2.
“We don’t know when he’ll be out of intensive care,” Smith said. “It’s one day at a time. He’s doing much better, and he’s in pretty good spirits.”
The City Council unanimously voted Duke a leave of absence on Tuesday.
Well-wishers have sent hundreds of cards, and Duke’s wife receives at least 40 telephone messages a day, Smith said, from friends and the community, City Hall and Knott’s Berry Farm, where Duke is a security official.
Besides being a two-term councilman, Duke is the former police chief of La Palma and Cypress
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