Ventura County Supervisor Undergoes Bypass Surgery

Supervisor Frank Schillo was recovering in an Oxnard hospital after undergoing triple bypass heart surgery Friday and could be back to work in three to four weeks, his doctor said.

“He’s awake and talking,” said Dr. Richard Declusin, who performed the surgery at St. John’s Regional Medical Center. “It went quite well.”

A Schillo spokesman said Thursday that the Thousand Oaks politician had suffered a mild heart attack. But Declusin said Schillo actually had suffered from angina, a blockage in the arteries that causes chest pain but does not result in permanent heart damage.

Schillo, 67, was resting after the nearly two-hour surgery that involved attaching blood vessels from elsewhere in the body to arteries near the heart. Doctors found three arteries that required bypass because of significant blockage.

Surgeons were able to reduce stress on the heart and avoid complications by performing the procedure without stopping Schillo’s heart, Declusin said.

The Ventura County supervisor is expected to leave the hospital in three or four days.

Schillo’s hospitalization comes as the five-member Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on a controversial proposal to reduce funding for the county’s public safety agencies. Schillo is ardently opposed to changing an ordinance that gives hefty annual increases to the sheriff’s, district attorney, probation and public defender departments.

Supervisor John Flynn, who will act as board chairman in Schillo’s absence, said he would push to have the vote at Tuesday’s meeting. He supports changing the funding formula.

“We need to move this along,” Flynn said. “I’m certainly sensitive to Frank’s position . . . [But] he’s just not one to hold things up.”

Supervisor Steve Bennett said that even if the board does not act Tuesday, it should vote on the issue before Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford steps down at the end of the month.

Hufford says alterations are needed to give supervisors more flexibility in balancing the county’s $1-billion budget and has played a key role in advising supervisors on the issue.

Hufford “studied this issue a long time,” Bennett said. “The bottom line is we’re going to be voting on Hufford’s recommendation. Whether it’s this Tuesday or not, [Schillo likely] won’t be here.”

Supervisor Kathy Long said she didn’t think it was important for the board vote on the matter before Hufford retires.

“If Frank says he wants to be there, we should try our best to let him be there,” she said.

Schillo began feeling chest pains Wednesday afternoon and went to a county clinic in Thousand Oaks that evening. He was taken by ambulance to St. John’s, because Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks was too full.

That kind of diversion is not uncommon at hospitals, Los Robles spokeswoman Jane Misel said.

“As we’re busier and in the middle of flu season, we’re seeing it more than ever before,” she said. “There’s no way to predict it.”

Los Robles, which opened a new emergency room that tripled its size, will soon be adding a 10-bed critical care unit, Misel said.

Declusin said Schillo, a nonsmoker who exercises regularly, doesn’t have too many of the risk factors normally associated with angina.

“He’s in pretty good shape,” Declusin said.