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Former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge hospitalized

By Julie Chang, Austin American-Statesman

In this Oct. 22, 2011, file photo, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge speaks to a crowd of hundreds protesting in front of the White House in Washington.

By Julie Chang, Austin American-Statesman

Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, 72, was in critical condition Thursday after undergoing an emergency heart procedure at Texas's Dell Seton Medical Center.

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Ridge, former governor of Pennsylvania, is in Austin attending the Republican Governors Association annual meeting at the JW Marriott Austin. At about 7 a.m. Thursday, he called hotel staff asking for help.

According to Ridge’s spokesman Steve Aaron, doctors performed a cardiac catheterization on Ridge.

“The governor’s friends and family are grateful to the Marriott hotel’s emergency services team, the paramedics who quickly responded, and to the hospital’s cardiac staff, nurses and ER physicians for their tremendous professionalism, caring and concern,” Aaron said in a statement.

Aaron said Ridge is responding to physicians.

Ridge served under former President George W. Bush as the first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005. He was governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001.

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