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Fitial moving to new hospital
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Posted on Oct 17 2006
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s return to the Commonwealth may be further delayed due to a change of venue for his scheduled surgery.
The governor is moving from the Stanford University Medical Center to the UCLA Medical Center at the request of his medical insurance company, acting Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez said yesterday.
“This is the second delay. The governor will be dealing with new doctors, who will surely review all of the findings made by the previous ones. We expect this to cause more delay in the governor’s return,” Villagomez said.
The governor has been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal, which places pressure on the spinal cord.
Fitial was originally scheduled to have a back surgery on Oct. 5. But it was postponed reportedly because further medical evaluation was needed.
He will need at least one month of recovery period after the operation.
He remains in contact via videoconference with the acting governor and top Cabinet officials while he is away.
Fitial said that the ailment had been giving him severe back pain for months now. He had tried medication and therapy, to no avail.
