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OGDEN, Utah (AP) -- Doctors performed emergency heart surgery Thursday on Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield.
Ray, 40, was diagnosed Monday with an aortic aneurysm. Doctors plan to rebuild the ascending aorta and the common carotid artery and replace the aortic valve, according to a statement from the Utah Legislature.
The surgery was expected to last at least seven hours at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden.
Ray is chairman of the House Health & Human Services Committee.
Gov. Jon Huntsman this week signed Ray's bill that says prosecutors won't have to prove that a killing was intentional to seek the death penalty if a child died during an act of abuse, sexual assault or kidnapping.
He also sponsored legislation that would have banned nearly all abortions in Utah, a direct challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized the procedure. The bill, however, died at the end of the legislative session.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
