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Gov. Patrick back in charge after hip replacement surgery

E-mail|Link|Comments () September 4, 2009 03:27 PM

By Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick is back in charge.

Governor Deval Patrick

The governor issued a statement this afternoon, saying that he had resumed his official powers after his hip replacement surgery Tuesday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The governor will be released from the hospital on Sunday and will recuperate at home after that.

“I am on the road to a complete and speedy recovery, and I am deeply grateful to the citizens of our Commonwealth for their outpouring of support and to the team of health care professionals at Massachusetts General Hospital for their expert care," Patrick said in the statement.

Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray had been serving as acting governor since Patrick went into the hospital early Tuesday morning.

Patrick's left hip, painful and debilitating due mostly to arthritis, needed to be replaced. The 53-year-old Patrick first injured it in Africa more than 30 years ago. Doctors declared the 2 1/2-hour operation a success Tuesday afternoon.

Patrick was working on a postgraduate United Nations fellowship in 1978 when he was in a truck accident in Sudan.