By AP/KWMU
Chicago, ILl. – His family says former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson should be out of a Chicago hospital by week's end.
Thompson had emergency surgery this weekend to remove a blood clot from his brain. Doctors expect a full recovery.
Thompson's wife Jayne says a CAT Scan Friday found the blood clot. She says doctors think the clot formed from internal bleeding caused when he slipped and fell on ice last month.
Thompson, 68, complained of a severe headache Friday night and was advised by his doctor to go to the emergency room, family spokesman Chris Robling said.
Doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital performed the surgery, called a craniotomy, on Saturday morning.
By Sunday afternoon, Thompson was calling friends and family and doing telephone interviews from his hospital bed in the intensive care unit. "I'm feeling pretty good for having three-hour surgery yesterday," He told Chicago radio station WBBM-AM. "I'm going to watch the Super Bowl tonight. Not exactly where I thought I'd be watching the Super Bowl tonight, but I'm glad I'm watching it."
Thompson, a Republican, slipped and fell on ice in early January, hitting his head and blackening his eye.
A former U.S. attorney in Chicago, Thompson is the state's longest-serving governor, holding office from 1977-1991. He chose not to seek re-election in 1991. He is chairman of the high-powered law firm Winston & Strawn and served on the federal commission that investigated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.