Riley, Fighting Off Ills, Leaves Hospital

Former County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley was released from Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian on Sunday after a weeklong bout with recurring chest and foot infections, his wife said Monday.

Riley, 83, has been battling pneumonia since December and was first treated for a foot infection in late 1993.

The former supervisor got pneumonia while at a Newport Beach rehabilitation center, where he was receiving therapy to strengthen his back and neck muscles after October surgery to relieve compression of his spine.

Riley returned to his Newport Beach home in late January but spent only about a week there before being readmitted to the hospital for treatment of various infections in his chest, kidneys and foot, said his wife, Emma Jane.

“It’s been a very, very slow process,” she said, “but he’s feeling better and looks better. This last week did a lot of good.”

Riley, a former Marine brigadier general who once commanded Camp Pendleton, retired from the Board of Supervisors in 1994 after a 20-year political career.