Fumo moved from prison to hospital with heart ailment

Former Pennsylvania State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo was moved Wednesday from the Kentucky federal prison where he is serving a five-year sentence to a nearby hospital after doctors discovered three blockages during a heart checkup.

Doctors have recommended that Fumo, 69, have heart bypass surgery to deal with one, in which an artery is 95 percent closed.

Such a procedure would require him to be transferred to another federal prison near a hospital that is better equipped to perform the bypass, according to sources familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.

Fumo's son, Vincent E. II, confirmed that his father was in the hospital as a result of the blockages but said he did not have any more details. Vincent Fumo II said he had not talked to his father directly but had received updates from his sister, Allison.

The son said he believes that his father, who has long had heart problems, is doing relatively well.

"He's up. He's speaking on the phone," Vincent Fumo II said.

Vincent Fumo is a patient at Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital in Ashland, Ky.

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

Vincent 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 an angioplasty to open an artery that was blocked.

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

In written testimony for Fumo's 2009 sentencing, his doctor, Nicholas DePace Sr., 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."

On Thursday, DePace, through an aide, declined to comment, citing confidentiality law. He would not say if Fumo was still his patient.

Vincent Fumo's girlfriend, Carolyn Zinni, has recently expressed concerns about his health. She recently launched an online petition demanding that prisoners get fresh vegetables.