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Former PA Governor And Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge Hospitalized In Texas

Jose Luis Magana
/
AP
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge addresses hundreds of protesters outside the White House on Oct. 22, 2011. A spokesman said Thursday that Ridge is in critical condition after emergency heart surgery in Texas.

A spokesman says former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge is in critical condition after undergoing an emergency heart procedure at a hospital in Austin, Texas.

Ridge spokesman Steve Aaron says the 72-year-old Ridge, who served as Republican governor from 1995 to 2001, was attending the Republican Governors Association conference when he called for help at his hotel about 7 a.m. 

The spokesman says Ridge underwent a cardiac catheterization at Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas.

Aaron says Ridge has been responsive with physicians.

He was also the nation's first U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, serving under President George W. Bush from 2003 to 2005.

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