NEW YORK (AP) – Former Mayor David Dinkins underwent an emergency appendectomy but on Saturday was “doing well,” a family friend said.

Dinkins was operated on Friday evening at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, former adviser and friend Peter Johnson Jr. said.

“He’s doing well. He’s walked already,” Johnson said. He joked that Dinkins was still hoping to make a tennis date next Saturday. “He’s 80 and he’s got the body of a 40 year old.”

Dinkins visited the hospital’s emergency room on the advice of his doctor after experiencing severe pain in his side. Surgeons removed his appendix in an operation that began at around 8 p.m., Johnson said.

One of Dinkins’ early visitors was Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who spent three hours with the mayor’s family while the surgery was taking place.

Police Department spokesman Paul Browne reported that Kelly found Dinkins “in good spirits” on Saturday.

Doctors are optimistic that Dinkins, who was mayor between 1990 and 1993, could be discharged by Monday or Tuesday, Johnson said.

AP-ES-10-27-07 1419EDT


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