Sen. Dick Durbin had been diagnosed with “atrial flutter,” a common condition that occurs when the heart beats too quickly. | AP Photo Durbin undergoes heart procedure

Sen. Dick Durbin underwent a medical procedure Tuesday to correct an abnormal heart rhythm, according to his office.

The Senate’s second-ranking Democrat had been diagnosed with “atrial flutter,” a common condition that occurs when the heart beats too quickly, which was discovered during the Illinois senator’s annual physical, his office said. To correct the issue, Durbin underwent an outpatient procedure called a catheter ablation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago on Tuesday morning.


“I anticipate that this heart tune-up will give my classic roadster many more miles of reliable service,” the senator said in a statement.

Durbin, 72, was first elected to Congress in 1982 and has been in Senate Democratic leadership since 2005. He will be in Illinois for the rest of this week, his office said.

The longtime Democratic senator also used the occasion to swipe at GOP lawmakers scrambling to scrap Obamacare: “My congressional colleagues who want to cut funding for medical research and take away health insurance for millions of Americans should remember that all of us are only one diagnosis away from needing the best care for ourselves and the people we love.”