BY HOWARD KOPLOWITZ AND CONNOR ADAMS SHEETS
Former state Sen. Frank Padavan has suffered a “very minor stroke,” according to Bill Coddington of Douglaston, a childhood friend who has visited him twice in the hospital since the incident.
Padavan, 76, has been at New York Hospital Queens since last Thursday, when he called a neighbor to drive him there from his home in Jamaica Estates after he began to feel under the weather, according to two sources familiar with his medical condition.
Padavan, a longtime cigarette smoker, was in the cardiac intensive care unit at NYHQ as of early Tuesday afternoon, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
“I expect that he will be released for rehabilitation very shortly, perhaps this afternoon,” Coddington said Tuesday. “We expect a complete recovery.”
The sources said he had been to his doctor either Wednesday or Thursday last week and his blood pressure had been high, but the doctor did not think it was anything to be too concerned about.
Phil Ragusa, the Queens GOP chairman, said he met with Padavan for an hour Sunday.
“He was fine. I saw him on Sunday afternoon. I was with him for an hour,” Ragusa said. “He told a few stories. His memory was fine. He just had a little setback and he’ll fight through it and he’ll be fine.”
Padavan served as the senator representing District 11 in northeast Queens for 38 years before losing a hotly contested race against former City Councilman Tony Avella in November.
He was in good spirits at his well-attended farewell party Dec. 29 at Leonard’s of Great Neck, singing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and thanking his many supporters over the years.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
