Councilman Alan Maisel is back to work after undergoing heart surgery last month — when doctors implanted advanced synthetic organs into the Mill Basin lawmaker.
“So I am now a cyborg,” said Maisel, referring to his new pacemaker.
Paramedics with Jewish ambulance corp Hatzolah rushed the 74-year-old legislator to Maimonides Medical Center last month with a cardiac blockage — a condition that caused his heart to beat at an abnormal rhythm — and the legislator praised first responders for getting him to the hospital in one piece.
“I have to give credit to Hatzolah,” Maisel said. “When they came to my house, I wasn’t doing too well.”
During his convalescence, Maisel missed a few Council votes, most notably the proposal to shut down Rikers Island and expand the House of Detention holding facility in Downtown Brooklyn. The lawmaker said he has serious reservations over the contentious prison development scheme, but would have likely supported the measure had he been well enough to vote.
“I was debating with myself and I had my reservations on closing it,” Maisel said. “But I probably would have voted for it.”
The legislator was released from rehab on Oct. 30, and constituents can now find Maisel working out of his district office a few hours a day, where he said his door is always open– no need to make an appointment.
