Planner’s Surgery Is Successful

Susan Brooks, a Rancho Palos Verdes planning commissioner, this week had successful surgery at UCLA Medical Center to remove a small tumor beneath her left eye.

“She is doing well. The doctors are very pleased,” Brooks’ husband, Jim, said, adding that the tumor proved benign.

Brooks, 40, underwent the nearly three-hour surgery Tuesday after doctors discovered the tumor in early January. Without the surgery, James Brooks said, his wife was warned that there was no way doctors could determine if the tumor was malignant--a possibility that could have led to blindness or an aneurysm.

Last week, Brooks announced she would undergo the surgery and take a three-month leave of absence from her duties to recuperate. Now, her husband said, she is hoping to return to the commission in as little as a month.

“She is eager to get back,” Jim Brooks said.