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Fumo taken to hospital, son says

Former State Sen. Vincent Fumo is in a Kentucky hospital

Former Sen. Vincent Fumo was taken from his prison in Kentucky to a nearby hospital Wednesday, said his son, Vincent E. Fumo II. The son said he was not exactly sure what the medical problem was but believed that doctors had found a blockage during a regular visit that prompted them to recommend he go into the hospital.

His son said he had not been able to talk to his father directly but had spoken to his sister, Allison Fumo, and to his father's girlfriend, Carolyn Zinni, about the situation.

Vincent E. Fumo said he was not certain of the name of the hospital where his father was staying. 6abc, attributing their report only to "sources," identified it as Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital in Ashland, Ky.

Fumo believes his father, who has long had heart problems, is doing relatively well.

"He's up. He's speaking on the phone," Fumo said of his dad.

Prison spokesman David Brewer wouldn't comment except to say that the former senator is a prisoner in the low security camp there.

Fumo suffered his first heart attack in 1977, the year before he was first elected to the Senate. He had a second heart attack in March 2008, and doctors performed angioplasty to open an artery that was completely blocked.

In 2009, Fumo, once Philadelphia's greatet power broker, was convicted on multiple charges related to defrauding the state Senate, a nonprofit and a museum.

In written testimony for Fumo's sentencing, his doctor, Nicholas DePace said, "It is my medical opinion, with a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that this patient will not survive a prolonged incarceration and that it would be equivalent to a death sentence."

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