Poland's Walesa to undergo heart surgery

WARSAW, Sept 4 (Reuters) Former Polish President Lech Walesa, 64, said today he would undergo surgery to get a defibrillator implant in his chest to monitor his heart beat.

Walesa, the former ''Solidarity'' leader who was a key player in overthrowing communism in 1989, suffers from irregular heart beat and doctors advised him to get the device implanted.

A cardioverter defibrillator monitors the heart and shocks it back into a normal rhythm if abnormal beating occurs. Such devices can prevent death caused by a sudden heart failure.

''This device will give me a kick when my heart stops,'' Walesa told Reuters in the northern city of Gdansk, birthplace of ''Solidarity''.

REUTERS RS RN2137