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Linger recovering from significant coronary illness
Ted Remsnyder is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media that Greene County Legislature Chair Patrick Linger returned to his duties April 6, presiding over a meeting for the first time in three months after experiencing a major health scare. While Linger appeared via Zoom at the Legislature’s last regular meeting on March 16, the last session he attended in person was the January 3 reorganizational meeting. On January 4, Linger experienced chest pains and was rushed to the hospital, where it was determined he had suffered an aortic dissection, a condition caused by a tear in the inner layer of the aorta. “...They found it through a CT scan and then I went through eight hours of emergency surgery that night. While I was there for that, I had a second surgery to do a carotid bypass on the carotid artery,” Linger said. After the second surgery, Linger was put on a blood thinner. “That coagulated my blood, which gave me a stroke,” he said. “So I had a heck of a couple of months.” Linger said he is working his way back to full strength. “They’re working on my stamina so I can make it through an entire day of doing work,” he said. He is now working between four and five hours a day at his full-time job, plus two hours of therapy twice a week. Linger said he followed county business while he was out. “By the second week of February, I was in regular contact with the county administrator and the leadership with (legislators) Harry Lennon and Matt Luvera throughout February and March,” he said. In Linger’s absence, Legislature Vice Chair Luvera ran the Legislature meetings. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.