Four days after Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy was released from the hospital, he spoke at a graduation ceremony Wednesday for police recruits.
"I am happy to be here," McCarthy said, invoking the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards. "I am happy to be anywhere."
McCarthy underwent a successful emergency angioplasty Thursday to relieve blocked arteries. Sources told NBC Chicago's Mary Ann Ahern he had woken up with chest pain, took aspirin and drove himself to the emergency room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital where an EKG revealed blockage.
He was released from the hospital on Saturday, and Chicago Police News Affairs Director Adam Collins said over the weekend that McCarthy is “doing very well, resting comfortably at home and looking forward to being back on patrol very soon.”
McCarthy told the newly graduated police officers and their families that he feels good and wouldn't miss this ceremony for anything in the world.
Quoting Mark Twain he told the group, "reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."
With a nod to the cameras, McCarthy said, "My doctors will be angry [I am here]. It's not like they will see it on television."
Mayor Rahm Emanuel publicly welcomed McCarthy back to the job.
"We thought it was the stress of the job," Emanuel joked. "Now we know it was all those Rolling Stones concerts."
