Assemblyman Takasugi Suffers Heart Attack

SACRAMENTO — Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) was hospitalized Monday in Sacramento after suffering a heart attack during his customary morning exercises--stunning friends, relatives and associates who remarked on the 76-year-old’s exceptional fitness.

Takasugi, one of only a handful of Asian Americans in the state Legislature, was in the middle of one of his regular brisk walks around Capitol Park when he fainted about a block from his home, authorities said.

A passerby noticed a fallen man clad in a running suit with a small gash on his head and called for an ambulance about 8:30 a.m., but authorities were unable to notify relatives for several hours because Takasugi was not carrying identification.

The former Oxnard mayor was taken to Sutter Memorial Hospital, where he remained in favorable condition in the cardiac intensive care unit Monday afternoon.

Hospital officials did not know how long Takasugi, who suffered a complete blockage of one of his arteries, would be monitored at the hospital, but said he appeared to be recovering well.

Takasugi’s son Scott, a Sacramento plastic surgeon, said he had shared a Father’s Day dinner with Takasugi the night before, and his father seemed to be in his usual good health and spirits. The next day, he said, he received a call from Takasugi’s aides, who were concerned because their typically punctual boss had missed several appointments.

Then he received a call from the hospital wondering if he could identify a man brought in after a heart attack, and realized that it had to be his father. Takasugi, whose district stretches from Thousand Oaks to Oxnard, cannot seek reelection this fall because of term limits.