Thoralf M. Sundt Jr.; Brain Surgeon Operated on Reagan

Thoralf M. Sundt Jr., 62, brain surgeon at the Mayo Clinic who operated on former President Reagan in 1989. The surgery on Reagan involved drilling a hole in his skull to drain a buildup of blood that apparently resulted from a horseback riding accident on July 4 of that year. Sundt, who was featured on a CBS “60 Minutes” segment repeated last Sunday, had been given only six months to live in 1985 when he was found to be suffering from multiple myeloma, tumors of the bone marrow. Sundt continued working until recently, however, as chairman of the prestigious Mayo Clinic’s department of neurologic surgery. He was also editor of the Journal of Neurosurgery. On Wednesday in Rochester, Minn., of myeloma.