RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey was released from the hospital Thursday, a spokesperson said, 10 days after undergoing heart surgery that wasn’t revealed publicly until well after it occurred.

Department spokesperson Jason Tyson said the Republican commissioner, who won a third four-year term in November, underwent the “elective” surgery at Duke Hospital in Durham to “correct a congenital heart defect.”

Causey “is currently recovering and doing well,” Tyson said in a statement provided before the commissioner’s release. “He has been in regular contact with the Department of Insurance almost daily and has been briefed and directed work.”

Causey, 74, told the News & Record of Greensboro in a phone interview Wednesday that only a handful of people at his department were aware of the Feb. 10 surgery. He said it wasn’t disclosed beforehand because “we didn’t want to alarm anybody ahead of time unnecessarily and there was just too many important matters that needed tending to to make any mistakes.”

The newspaper said Causey’s surgery was revealed Tuesday at a Greensboro City Council meeting that he didn’t attend. Causey, who is from the Greensboro area, had been involved in annexation and rezoning hearings about some local land.

Causey said the defect was discovered in late 2023 when he received a body scan during a health screening. Further examination showed Causey had developed an aneurysm, the newspaper reported.

Causey decided to delay the surgery following consultation with a surgeon. Causey ran for reelection in 2024, and continued monitoring showed the aneurysm remained stable, he said.

The insurance commissioner is one of 10 statewide elected executive branch officials that compose the Council of State. Causey ran unsuccessfully for commissioner several times before his initial election in 2016.