KOMO-TV's Kathi Goertzen recovering from brain-tumor surgery

KOMO-TV's Kathi Goertzen is recovering in the intensive-care unit at a Seattle hospital after undergoing brain-tumor surgery Thursday morning.

The surgery "went better than expected," said KOMO-TV news director Holly Gauntt.

Doctors were able to remove more of the tumor than they initially thought they could, Gauntt said in an e-mail Thursday afternoon.

Goertzen was expected to spend the night in the ICU.

"We are all so relieved," Gauntt said.

Goertzen, 49, has been battling the brain tumor with surgery and radiation treatments for the past decade. This was her third surgery for a tumor known as a meningioma, which is located at the base of her brain and cannot be fully removed because of the risk of critically damaging the nerves affecting her ability to speak and swallow. The tumor is noncancerous.

In an interview earlier this week, Goertzen said she anticipated her surgery would be followed by daily radiation treatments for about six weeks. She also said new ways of studying the molecular structure of the tumor might also lead to experimental drug therapy.

The station says it has no idea how long it will be before Goertzen returns. Goertzen, who has been at KOMO-TV for 28 years, co-anchors the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. nightly newscasts.

Station management has shuffled some on-air assignments to fill in for her. Mary Nam, the 4 p.m. nightly anchor, will now also co-anchor the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts; Molly Shen the 5 p.m. newscast; and Denise Whitaker the weekend-evening and Rachelle Murcia the weekend-morning newscasts.

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@seattletimes.com