Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, 72, was in critical condition Thursday after undergoing an emergency heart procedure at Texas's Dell Seton Medical Center.
Ridge, former governor of Pennsylvania, is in Austin attending the Republican Governors Association annual meeting at the JW Marriott Austin. At about 7 a.m. Thursday, he called hotel staff asking for help.
According to Ridge’s spokesman, Steve Aaron, doctors performed a cardiac catheterization on Ridge.
“The governor’s friends and family are grateful to the Marriott hotel’s emergency services team, the paramedics who quickly responded, and to the hospital’s cardiac staff, nurses and ER physicians for their tremendous professionalism, caring and concern,” Aaron said in a statement.
Aaron said Ridge is responding to physicians.
Ridge served under former President George W. Bush as the first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005. He was governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001.
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