New Life Church Senior Pastor Brady Boyd is recovering well from open-heart surgery Friday in Colorado Springs, a church spokeswoman said Monday.
Boyd, 44, underwent replacement of a leaking pulmonary valve, a defect he was born with.
“Doctors anticipate that Pastor Brady will make a full recovery,” church spokeswoman Amie Streater said.
Boyd told his congregation about his upcoming surgery during May 22 services. He said doctors informed him in February or March that his defective valve had become serious.
“They say I’m going to feel better than ever after I recover from surgery — 25 percent to 30 percent more energy,” Boyd said. “So, in July, it’s Turbo Brady.”
Boyd joked with his congregation that he was given a choice of a cow’s or a pig’s aorta to replace his valve, and, hailing as he does from Texas, he chose cow.
“And I wanted to be kosher around my Jewish brethren,” he joked.
Boyd said he anticipated spending five to seven days in the hospital and a recovery period of four to six weeks.
The church didn’t disclose at which hospital he is being treated.
Boyd replaced church founder Ted Haggard, a nationally prominent preacher and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, after scandal forced his resignation from New Life in November 2006.
A few months after Boyd took over the 10,000-member church, one of the state’s largest, a young gunman killed two teenagers and wounded their father in the church parking lot Dec. 9, 2007, terrifying almost an entire congregation as it left Sunday services.
Shooter Matthew Murray, 24, wounded by a church security guard, then shot and killed himself.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
