Houston mayor returns to office

08/02/05

DAWN DE BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

HOUSTON - The mayor of Houston is busying himself with grant applications to remodel city hall, just two weeks after suffering a so-called "mini-stroke" during an angiogram at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.

During the July 14 procedure, in which a doctor squirts dye into the blood vessels and then uses a small camera to view the patient's vessels and heart, a cardiologist accidentally knocked a piece of plaque from the wall of one of Dale Adams' arteries. The loose plaque traveled through the arteries until it lodged in the lower part of his brain, Adams explained.

"I guess a tiny portion of my brain died. But it's nothing real serious. I lost part of my eyesight. But it's coming back. I can't see to my right," said Adams, who has been Houston's mayor for four years, during a phone interview Wednesday.

Adams said he was too groggy from anesthesia to be concerned at the time of the incident. "When I came to, the first thing I said to the doctor was, 'I can only see half of your face, and maybe that's a good thing,'" he quipped.

Doctors kept Adams in the hospital for two days, where the staff ran cardiograms and eye tests and an MRI on him, he said. The conclusion: There was no damage to his eyes.

Adams said he has no plans to sue the cardiologist or the hospital.

He was a little chagrined to find he had plaque in his blood vessels, though.

"I haven't had a steak in 10 years. Occasionally, I eat moose meat," he said.

In spite of the medical mishap, Adams was back at city hall four days after the mini-stroke occurred. "I enjoy working too much to stay out of this place," he said.

Adams may have been wanting to get back to work because an influx of people has ramped up the amount of work Houston City Hall employees must accomplish in a cramped office space.

"One contractor asked about more property to build homes on," he said.

Right now, Adams is trying to obtain funding for an addition to city hall that would house the Houston Police Department and its public works department.

"We have a second police officer coming on duty this week," Adams said, adding that a third law-enforcement officer, fresh from the academy, is doing field training in Wasilla.

Adams said part of the fun is that he never knows what the day is going to bring.

"He's a riot. I don't know what I'd do without him. He keeps us on our toes," said Cat Bullington, Houston's deputy clerk.