Friday, March 1, 2013

Sen. Michael Sanchez Hospitalized Again

For the second time in less than a month, Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez was taken to the hospital Friday, aides and fellow Senate leaders said.

Toward the end of Friday’s Senate floor session, Sanchez went to the Senate Lounge to lie down after he started feeling ill, his chief of staff Lorraine Montoya-Vigil told reporters.

Senate President Pro-tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces said the doctor on duty thought he should be taken to St. Vincent Hospital for observation. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance, Papen said. The lounge area was blocked off and the Senate floor session was cut short, Papen said.

In mid February Sanchez, 62, underwent an angioplasty stent procedure on the advice of his doctor. He went back to work in the Senate the next week.

According to the National Institutes of Health, a stent is a small mesh tube that's used to treat narrow or weak arteries.

Last summer Sanchez underwent a heart-related emergency procedure after having chest pains.

UPDATE:: I just talked to Montoya-Vigil, who said she just spoke with Sanchez who said he expects to be released from the hospital soon.

Asked whether Sanchez is expected to be at Saturday's Rules Committee hearing for Education Secretary designate Hanna Skandera. "I'd be shocked if he's not," Montoya-Vigil said.