Paterson Medical Update: He Has Glaucoma
-
- May
- 20
From Jay Gallagher:
Gov. David Paterson is suffering from acute glaucoma and is undergoing this afternoon what was described as a routine laser procedure to relieve the symptoms, his office said today.
Paterson was taken to the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan this morning suffering from migraine-like symptoms and was taken to a Manhattan hospital for tests, which disclosed the glaucoma, a disease of the eye.
Paterson, who turns 54 today, was undergoing a procedure known as an iridotomy to relieve pressure on the eye.
Glaucoma can cause blindness, but the governor does not have any vision in his left eye – the one affected by the glaucoma. He has and limited vision in his right eye. His vision is rated at 20/400, meaning he can see at 20 feet what a person with perfect vision can see at 400 feet.
“The operation will not have any long-term impact on the Governor’s overall health,’’ according to a statement issued by spokeswoman Risa Heller.
There was no indication when Paterson will resume his duties. He was to deliver a commencement address at Columbia University today, but Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is subbing for him.
Paterson has been hospitalized twice before in the past two years. In April of 2006 he complained of chest pain and was admitted to a hospital, where tests turned up no problems. He was released after about 12 hours.
In July of 2007, he fainted on an airplane while traveling to Buffalo. Again tests found no evidence of heart disease and he was hospitalized only briefly.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 3:00 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
