JACKSON — A one-time aide to former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott said Thursday that the Mississippi Republican has suffered a ruptured appendix.
The former aide, Lee Youngblood, told The Associated Press that he has been in touch with Lott’s family. Youngblood said the 71-year-old Lott underwent surgery and is expected to recover.
“He did have a ruptured appendix,” Youngblood said. “That’s bad, but it’s not life-threatening by any means.”
In Jackson, Baptist Medical Center spokesman Robby Channell said Lott was in fair condition Thursday night.
Lott’s daughter, Tyler Lott Armstrong, who lives in Jackson, wrote in a Facebook message to AP late Thursday that her father is “doing fine and resting comfortably.”
“He will be in the hospital for a couple of days, but will be just fine,” she wrote.
The Mayo clinic website describes appendicitis as a painful condition in which the appendix, a finger-shaped pouch that projects out from the colon, becomes inflamed and fills with pus. If an appendix ruptures, it is a medical emergency and the contents of the intestines and infectious organisms can leak into the abdominal cavity, causing an infection there. This can potentially lead to a pocket of infection in the abdomen called an abscess, which requires treatment before it tears and causes a more widespread infection, the website says.
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