Vice Mayor Feels "Fine" After Appendectomy

When Vice Mayor Richard Garbarino felt sick last Thursday night, at first he chalked it up to the flu. But less than a day later, he found himself in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery—on his way back to being his normal self, minus his appendix.

Garbarino said he was forced to undergo an emergency appendectomy on Friday after experiencing discomfort in his stomach early Thursday evening.

The procedure was performed in the wee hours of Friday morning, after Garbarino admitted himself to the hospital Thursday night.

“Last Thursday evening, I had some discomfort and felt like I was coming down with the flu,” said Garbarino, a member of city council since 2002. “I had a bad stomachache. I went to bed early, at about 7pm or 7:30pm, and a couple hours later, I definitely had some discomfort in my stomach area.”

Garbarino, who will be 68 next week, eventually had enough pain that he told his wife he needed to go to the hospital.

Garbarino’s doctor believed the pain might be caused by the appendix or kidney stones, or both.

“They took a CAT-scan and decided it was the appendix,” Garbarino said. “By this time it was getting into midnight, and they said they were going to admit me to the hospital and give me all kinds of medicine to make me comfortable.”

Originally, Garbarino’s doctor felt that surgery was unnecessary and that antibiotics could cure the councilmember’s ailment.

However, the CAT-scan further revealed that Garbarino’s appendix was enflamed and removal was the only option.

“I woke up and was speaking with the doctor, and he said, ‘We got to you just in time because your appendix was on the verge of bursting,’” Garbarino said. “That would have been a whole other medical situation for me. I was fortunate that way.”

Instead of making a large incision, doctors used microscope technology to examine and eventually remove Garbarino’s appendix.

“I was free to go home Friday afternoon, but in chatting with my doctor, we both agreed that I might be a better idea for me just to stay over one extra day,” Garbarino said. “So I came home Saturday afternoon and I’ve taken no pain medication whatsoever.”

“I have to tell you, I feel fine,” he added. “Tuesday of this week, I was back in the council office doing what I had to do. I guess I’m very fortunate that they caught it in time.”