July 9, 2024 3:20 a.m.
Mayor Larry Rich is recovering from open-heart surgery.
A City of Roseburg release said Rich had triple-bypass surgery at PeaceHealth Sacred Health Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield on Monday June 17th.
In a phone interview with Communications Specialist Suzanne Hurt on Monday. Rich said, “Every day is getting better. I have good moments and bad moments. And they can happen at any time”.
Rich, who was elected as Mayor of Roseburg in 1998, underwent surgery at RiverBend to replace three arteries, including the main left artery, where a 60 percent blockage could have led to what’s known as a “widow maker” heart attack. Doctors replaced the arteries with an artery from the chest and a vein from the leg.
Hurt said the mayor spent six days in the hospital after open-heart surgery and experienced an irregular heartbeat known as fluttering during that time. Rich is holding phone meetings and carrying out his work as the mayor via email, but missed the June 24th meeting as he continued recovering at home.
The release said Rich is having a hard time breathing because of fluid in his lungs but has been able to walk quite a bit. The mayor went to the emergency room at CHI Mercy Medical Center on Thursday June 27th, after fainting when he stood up, while coughing from the fluid in his lungs. Rich hit his face on bedroom furniture and the floor.
Rich said, “The difficulty with breathing just comes and goes. For a week, it was pretty miserable”.
Rich has just finished his third week of recovery and has been told he should start feeling better from week four to six. He expects to preside over the next city council meeting on July 22nd.
In January, Rich had surgery to install a sent in one artery after suffering a heart attack on December 28th. He didn’t feel chest pain or any other symptoms that he recognized but began feeling unwell that weekend after traveling to a higher elevation in Lake Tahoe. Rich was still recovering from that surgery at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center on Monday, January 1st, when he turned 68. He was discharged the next day.
Rich had to recover from the first surgery before he could undergo open-heart surgery.