WORLD
SANTIAGO, Chile — Gen. Augusto Pinochet, whose 17-year dictatorship carried out thousands of political killings and widespread torture, was fighting for his life in a Chilean hospital Sunday after suffering a heart attack. But doctors said his condition was improving after an emergency procedure to restore blood flow to his heart.
Doctors initially said they planned bypass surgery Sunday on the 91-year-old former strongman but they later ruled it out. Dr. Juan Ignacio Vergara, a member of the team treating Pinochet, said the surgery was not needed after an angioplasty performed in the morning to clear a heart artery obstruction "allowed improvement in his condition."
"No bypass has been performed and we expect no open heart surgery will be necessary," Vergara said on Sunday afternoon, explaining that such surgery was extremely risky for someone of Pinochet's age.
"There is a trend toward improvement," he said. "He is conscious, he communicates with us and with his family."
But Vergara made clear Pinochet's condition continues to be serious "and the next 24 to 48 hours will be critical to see whether other complications appear." He said an accumulation of fluid in Pinochet's lungs "was a secondary problem that has been solved."
Earlier Pinochet's younger son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, said his father had been "virtually rescued from death" with the angioplasty. The former leader's spokesman, retired Gen. Guillermo Garin, said last rites had been administered.
