Two Pols Working Through the Pain

Thousand Oaks Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Gillette and Councilman Ed Masry are both recovering from recent surgeries, but their medical problems have not kept them from doing their jobs this week.

Gillette, 65, experienced a mild heart attack and had emergency surgery Sunday, and Masry, 72, had a femoral artery bypass operation March 1.

In Washington, D.C., to attend a National League of Cities conference, Gillette had finished a meeting Friday morning with the senior staff of Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) when he had chest pains and shortness of breath. He went to the emergency room of George Washington University Hospital. An angiogram revealed a 95% blockage of his right coronary artery.

On Sunday morning, an angioplasty, in which doctors briefly inflate tiny balloons in a clogged artery to increase blood flow, was performed and a stainless steel stent was implanted to keep the artery open.

“For someone who prides himself for having incredibly good health, this was something beyond my control,” Gillette said Wednesday, speaking from his home. He said he receives regular advice on recuperating from his youngest daughter, Lisa, director of nursing at USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital.

Gillette, a retired Ventura County assistant sheriff and a former vice president at Cal Lutheran University, said he checked on council matters soon after returning home Tuesday night. He has the first of two government meetings scheduled today before the next council meeting next Tuesday.

Masry said he also is back at work, albeit from his hospital bed at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center. Two secretaries from his Westlake Village law firm have spent up to five hours a day since Monday helping him answer e-mail, return phone messages and confer with other attorneys at his practice.

“I’m doing everything in this hospital that I’d be doing in the office,” Masry said.

Pain in his left leg made it difficult to walk during much of 2004, so Masry and his doctors scheduled surgery for earlier this month. After a synthetic artery was inserted in his left thigh, a blood clot developed, necessitating a second surgery, after which Masry got a staph infection.

Before the operation, Masry stubbed the big toe on his left foot and it became swollen and turned purple. Now doctors must decide whether it will heal or needs to be amputated.

“My big problem is walking,” he said. “When I put pressure on my left foot, I can’t do it.”

Masry, who is diabetic and receives kidney dialysis three times a week, said he feels better and his appetite has improved. Although he intends to prepare for Tuesday’s council meeting, he is not sure whether he will be released from the hospital by then.