Letterman Leaves Hospital After Heart Surgery

CBS late-night talk show host and comic David Letterman left the hospital Wednesday, just five days after undergoing successful cardiac bypass surgery, a spokesman said.

“With his recovery moving ahead of schedule, Dave was discharged from New York-Presbyterian Hospital this afternoon,” Letterman’s publicist Howard Rubenstein said in a statement.

Letterman, 52, who has a family history of heart disease, went into the hospital Friday for an angiogram to look for blockages in his veins or arteries and was operated on shortly after, when the test mandated surgery.

“With his recovery being so smooth, it was clear that he was ready to be discharged,” his physician, Dr. Louis Aronne, said. “His quick release . . . is evidence of his excellent health.”