AURORA , Colorado ( CNN ) -- The Atlanta lawyer with tuberculosis who caused an international health scare after traveling to Europe and back underwent surgery Tuesday to remove the diseased portion of one of his lungs . TB patient Andrew Speaker set off an international health scare when he traveled to Europe for his wedding in May . Andrew Speaker , 31 , had the roughly two-hour operation to remove the upper lobe of his right lung at the University of Colorado Hospital . He 's been under treatment at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver since the end of May . CNN 's Dr. Sanjay Gupta , who observed the surgery for about an hour , explained that the unusual procedure consisted of inserting a video camera in a tube in one small incision in the right side of Speaker 's chest , and putting instruments through another incision . When the infected portion of the lung was cut out , it was placed inside a bag while still inside the attorney 's chest cavity and the bag was sealed inside a tube before being removed . The main reason for sealing the infected tissue was to prevent it from re-infecting Speaker as it was removed , Gupta said after the operation . Doctors also wanted to make sure they did n't `` release any of that tuberculosis bacteria into the operating room , into the rest of the hospital , '' Gupta said before the surgery on CNN 's `` American Morning . '' Watch Andrew Speaker discuss his reasons for having surgery with CNN 's Dr. Sanjay Gupta » . Doctors said the operation went well and there was not much bleeding , Gupta said . The portion of the lung that was removed showed the effects of the disease , Gupta said . `` A regular lung is very pink with a smooth , glistening surface , '' he said . `` This had a lot of bumps on it , and the areas that were diseased were very dark with white nodules . '' Speaker will most likely recover at the University of Colorado Hospital for another couple of days , and will return to National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver to finish his antibiotic course . He will still have to continue taking the medications prescribed by his doctors to fight the tuberculosis until cultures taken from him are negative for tuberculosis bacteria for eight weeks . At that point , he will be considered non-infectious , but he will still be monitored by health care professionals . Speaker said it was his decision to have the surgery , which is just one of his treatment options . `` With the amount of treatment I 'm going to be on , the doctors said if you go ahead and have this surgery , you do n't have to worry 10 years from now , or 20 years from now , or 30 years from now if it 's ever going to come back , so it 's worth the peace of mind to me , '' the attorney said . Speaker was originally found to have an extremely drug resistant strain ( XDR-TB ) of the respiratory disease earlier this year , but on July 3 doctors said he had multi-drug resistant tuberculosis ( MDR-TB ) , which is treatable with less toxic drugs . Speaker and his fiancee had gone to Europe on May 12 for their wedding in Greece , despite warnings from the Fulton County Health Department in Georgia that he should not fly because he risked infecting fellow passengers . Since then , eight people who shared a flight with Speaker have filed a lawsuit against him , seeking $ 1.3 million in damages . Rosalind Yee -- an attorney for the plaintiffs who said her clients include a ninth person related to one of the passengers but who was not on the flight -- said all eight passengers have undergone TB tests since they returned home . One of them , a 72-year-old man , tested positive for TB on a skin test , though it was not clear that Speaker was the source . The man 's X-rays were normal , she said , and he is awaiting results of further tests . In the past year , there have been about 124 cases of MDR-TB in the United States . About half of those patients have elected to undergo the surgery to remove the diseased portion of their lungs , Gupta said . E-mail to a friend .
NEW : Doctors remove TB-infected lung tissue from Andrew Speaker . He said decided to have surgery so he wo n't have to worry about TB in future . Speaker sparked health scare after flying with disease . Score: 7