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Silvio Berlusconi

ROME. — Italy’s controversial former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was undergoing cardiac surgery yesterday after a heart attack his doctor said could have killed the 79-year-old tycoon.

“At 8am this morning (yesterday), the operation to replace his aortic valve began,” the San Raffaele hospital in Milan said in a statement.

The surgery was expected to last for four hours and Berlusconi will be in intensive care for another two days, the hospital said.

The flamboyant media mogul and football club owner, who dominated Italian politics for nearly two decades, is expected to remain in hospital for several weeks.

Berlusconi’s 30-year-old companion Francesca Pascale was seen at the window of his hospital room, clutching a handkerchief.

Italian media reports said his children were also at San Raffaele Hospital.

The operation is being conducted by Ottavio Alfieri, the head of the hospital’s cardiac surgery unit. — AFP.