State lawmaker from Hartshorne suffers heart attack

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ An Oklahoma legislator who underwent tests after being hospitalized with chest pains last week suffered a heart attack, his wife said. <br/><br/>Rep. Mike Mass, D-Hartshorne, returned

Wednesday, October 6th 2004, 4:20 pm

By: News On 6

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ An Oklahoma legislator who underwent tests after being hospitalized with chest pains last week suffered a heart attack, his wife said.

Rep. Mike Mass, D-Hartshorne, returned home Monday night, Suzanne Mass said.

Mass, 52, has about a 60 percent blockage in one of the arteries leading from his heart, Suzanne Mass said. That area was blocked when a blood clot traveling through his artery could not pass the constriction.

Mass had been hospitalized overnight at McAlester Regional Medical Center last Thursday.

He said he began ``feeling a bit poorly'' and was having his brother drive him to a hospital in Tulsa when he apparently suffered the attack on Friday.

Mass received initial treatment before being transferred to St. Francis Heart Hospital in Tulsa. Doctors there found the narrowed artery and prescribed medication designed to remove plaque from the artery wall, Suzanne Mass told The McAlester News-Capitol on Tuesday.

``I'm going to try to keep him down for a couple of days, but that's not going to be easy,'' she said. ``He's still gung ho for the campaign.

``He's got to rest for a while, but he's doing fine.''

Mass was the District 17 state representative from 1991 to 2001, when he decided not to run for re-election. After a failed bid for the U.S. Congress, Mass won a special election in August 2003 to return to the state House of Representatives.

He faces Mark Halyard, McAlester Republican, in the Nov. 2 election.