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ATLANTA (AP) — Coretta Scott King's family expects her to fully recover from a minor heart attack and a major stroke that impaired her ability to speak and affected her right side.
Yolanda King said Thursday she was having a conversation with her mother, the widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., at her Atlanta home mother when she suddenly stopped talking. Family members immediately took her to the hospital. "We are completely assured she will come to a complete recovery," Yolanda King said. "We believe this is a cleverly disguised opportunity to grow." Dr. Charles Wickliffe, a cardiologist at Piedmont Hospital, where King has been hospitalized since Tuesday, said a blood clot moved from King's heart and lodged in an artery in the left side of her brain. He said King is "completely aware." "This same clot caused a small heart attack and a big stroke," he said. King was listed in fair condition early Friday. Wickliffe said she was on blood thinners to prevent more problems and that she was prepared for the long days of rehabilitation. The stroke caused weakness in King's right arm, right leg and the right side of her face, and she was not able to speak, Wickliffe said. He said she would remain in the hospital for days and would need intensive therapy. "We have to retrain the right side of her body to do the normal things that you do," Wickliffe said. Martin Luther King III said the family decided to disclose Coretta Scott King's condition after first withholding it because it was important "to bring some clarity." Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson came to the hospital but did not visit King's bedside. "The good news is, she is a tough person and she is going to survive this," Jackson told reporters. Coretta Scott was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music when a friend introduced her to Martin Luther King Jr., a young Baptist minister working toward a Ph.D. at Boston University. They married in 1953 and had four children. After his assassination in Memphis, in 1968, she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta and traveled widely to help foster her husband's dreams. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
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