Baptiste OK after surgery

The mayor of Kauai has a heart bypass performed on Oahu

LIHUE » Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste is "his usual feisty self" after heart bypass surgery Friday, Kauai public information officer Mary Daubert said yesterday.

Baptiste, 52, went in for a routine checkup last week, and doctors apparently did not like what they saw.

"They recommended he go for surgery," Daubert said.

So he flew to the Queen's Medical Center, where the heart bypass was performed Friday.

The surgery went well, and Baptiste is expected back on the Garden Isle sometime this week.

However, a timetable for his return to the mayor's chair will have to be cleared by doctors.

"He is looking forward to returning to work," Daubert said. "We'll just have to wait until we see what the doctors say."

In the meantime, Gary Heu, the mayor's administrative assistant, is serving as mayor pro tem.

Heu has held the job before, most recently when Baptiste went with Gov. Linda Lingle on a tour of the Philippines.

Baptiste is in his second term as Kauai mayor, re-elected in 2006 with just more than 50 percent of the vote. He first served on the Kauai County Council from 1996 until his election as mayor in 2002.