MANILA (Updated, 12:25 p.m.) -- First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo is now in stable condition after being rushed to a hospital Thursday morning when he complained of back pains related to his heart surgery in 2007.
Dr. Rommel Cariño, Arroyo’s cardiac surgeon, said the First Gentleman was rushed to the hospital at 8 a.m. after he developed a redissection of the thoracic aorta and experienced back pains.
Mr. Arroyo will remain at the coronary unit of the Saint Luke’s Hospital Medical Center in Taguig City as his condition is being monitored closely, Cariño said.
"The condition calls for intense medical care to control the blood pressure and heart rate to prevent further re-dissection. A rupture can cause compression of the blood supply to various vital organs," he said.
“Right now, we are controlling vital signs and back pains,” Cariño said in a statement.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo canceled all her morning appointments Thursday after receiving report that First Gentleman Mike Arroyo has to be rushed to the hospital.
Justice Secretary Alberto Agra said that President Arroyo was on her way to the 22nd Annual Convention of the Prosecutors League of the Philippines at Manila Hotel but she has to go back to the Palace to bring her husband to the hospital.
Agra said that the President cancelled all her schedule including a groundbreaking ceremony of housing project in Bulacan, gracing of cultural show in Pampanga, and a dinner at Crowne Plaza Hotel Thursday evening. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)