By Phil Corso
As he makes headway in what he called a successful and ahead-of-schedule recovery from brain surgery to remove a benign tumor, City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) was not at a loss for jokes on his way back to the campaign trail.
“I’m out of the rough patch. Doctors are shocked,” Halloran said on his Facebook account Friday, accompanied by a photo of him in the hospital bed with bandages wrapped around his head. “I am way ahead of recovery schedule.”
He then went on to tap into some humor.
“They attribute it to whiskey and my thick Irish skull,” he said.
Another positive takeaway, spokesman Steven Stites said with a joke of his own, was how the councilman’s secret fear “that the doctors might accidentally remove a piece of his brain, turning him into a Democrat” was not realized.
A photo of Halloran’s head after the surgery showed a large, C-shaped, surgical scar stitched shut behind his right ear. According to Stites, Halloran should be back on the job and the campaign trail in the next week or two.
Halloran was operated on May 23 at the NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan and was scheduled to return home to Flushing five days earlier than expected Saturday, his office said.
Stites said the councilman was already showing positive signs since going into the operating room for what he called a lengthy procedure.
“He’s walking, talking and looks like the same old Dan,” Stites said. “Aside from the scar, he is in fantastic shape. The procedure went as well as we all hoped.”
According to Stites, Halloran was diagnosed in March on the morning of his campaign kick-off for the 6th Congressional District seat with a benign tumor, but he initially declined to say where it was located.
Hours after going into the hospital, Halloran’s chief of staff, Chrissy Voskerichian, posted on Halloran’s Facebook page, reporting a successful surgery. She said everything went well and he expected a full recovery.
“He’s going to be at 100 percent capacity as if there wasn’t anything wrong,” Voskerichian said. “We’ve got a campaign to run.”
Voskerichian added that Halloran would likely talk more about the procedure and his initial diagnosis upon his return.
The councilman’s office remained open and active during Halloran’s time in the hospital and recovery.
In a statement before going into surgery, Halloran said that although he was worried about the operation, the procedure was still a small ordeal when compared to what other New Yorkers might be living through.
Reach reporter Phil Corso by e-mail at pcorso@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
