Doctor Says Harris Is Doing Well After 7-Hour Heart Bypass Surgery

VALHALLA, N.Y. —  Jean Harris, granted clemency from her prison sentence for murder just before being wheeled into quadruple heart bypass surgery, was conscious and doing well Wednesday.

“Everything looks quite fine,” Dr. Aristide Haravon, her cardiologist, said after seeing her in the morning. “She can’t speak yet. She still has a tube in her throat, as is routine.”

Harris was listed as critical but stable and under intensive care at Westchester County Medical Center.

Harris, 69, has served nearly 12 years of her 15-year-to-life prison sentence for murdering her lover, Dr. Herman Tarnower, the millionaire developer of the “Scarsdale Diet.”

Her lawyer, Michael Kennedy, estimated that Harris, the former headmistress of an exclusive girls’ school in northern Virginia, would be freed from Bedford Hills prison by the end of January or early February.

“She’s very excited about rebuilding relationships with her family and friends,” Kennedy said on NBC’s “Today.”

“It gives her something to live for,” he said. Before getting the word, Harris “had very serious doubts about her ability to survive. She was very frightened,” he said.

Harris got the news that she had been granted clemency before she was taken into the operating room for seven hours of surgery Tuesday.

“She started crying and was extremely happy,” Haravon said.