Bionic Bob

More on ex-Mayor Bob Lanier's collapse yesterday at Ken Lay's memorial service: The Chronicle reports that Lanier's defibrillator likely saved his life. Mayorbob's heart apparently developed an erratic rhythm as he and Elyse approached their seats at First Methodist Church, which caused the defibrillator implanted in his chest to shock his heart, which in turn might have caused him to collapse (it's not clear whether the irregular heartbeat or the shock did it).

Lanier was taken to the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's, where doctors plan to keep him a couple of days for observation. The former mayor isn't a stranger to heart trouble: In 1998, he had a minor heart attack and underwent a triple bypass and surgery to remove blood clots that had formed around his heart, and in 2002, he was hospitalized after an irregular heartbeat caused the defibrillator to fire.

After the collapse but before details became available, we were surprised to see a piece from KHOU that looked suspiciously like an obituary for Lanier. We know news outlets keep canned obits on hand for important people, but in retrospect, we guess Channel 11's work was really just a look back at Lanier's career ... which will come in really handy when he dies.