BOSTON--St. Maarten’s highest vote-getter suspended Member of Parliament (MP) Theo Heyliger is resting after a lengthy surgery in Boston, Massachusetts, to remove part of one of his kidneys that had a significant cancerous tumour and a cyst.
Other than discomfort and some pain customarily associated with invasive surgery, Heyliger is said to be in good spirits and healing. He will have to live with a surgery-related tube in his stomach for at least another two weeks. He is still in hospital, with his wife Grisha Heyliger-Marten at his side.
Heyliger went under the surgeon’s knife at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Boston on Friday afternoon. The surgery entailed some five incisions into his abdominal cavity and took some four hours. He will need six or more weeks to recover.
Heyliger was arrested on February 19 on charges levied by the Prosecutor’s Office and was suspended from Parliament due to these accusations. He was released almost four months later and is awaiting trial on corruption and money-laundering charges.
