Rodney Dangerfield Remains In A Coma
KABC- Los Angeles
Monday September 20, 2004
LOS ANGELES — Rodney Dangerfield, who underwent heart valve replacement surgery on Aug. 25, has been in a coma for several weeks, although the comedian's overall condition is stable, his wife revealed Monday.
Joan Dangerfield said in a statement released by her husband's publicist that the 82-year-old entertainer "slipped into a light coma a couple of weeks ago while recovering from his heart surgery."
"His overall condition, however, remains stable," she said. "He is receiving extraordinary care from his doctors and nurses and was able to breathe on his own for the past 24 hours.
"After recent visits from his family and close friends, Rodney is starting to show signs of awareness, and we are all hopeful that he will regain full consciousness soon," she added.
"Our family remains optimistic that Rodney will make a complete recovery and we are humbled by the love and support we have received during his hospitalization."
Dangerfield, known for his "I get no respect" tagline and beleaguered "everyman" persona, had undergone a "brain bypass" procedure last April in preparation for last month's surgery.
Dangerfield spent two weeks in the hospital last year after undergoing the nearly eight-hour procedure in which doctors inserted a superficial temporal artery near the entertainer's right ear into the middle cerebral artery of his brain to increase blood flow.
UCLA's chief of neurosurgery performed the extracranial-intracranial brain bypass to lessen the risk of the heart valve replacement surgery, which took about seven hours to complete, according to publicist Kevin Sasaki.
