Comedian Rodney Dangerfield slipped into a coma while recovering from heart surgery in recent weeks but "is starting to show signs of awareness," his wife Joan said Monday. The 82-year-old performer, who was reported by his spokesman to have been hooked to a respirator in intensive care since undergoing a heart-valve replacement on Aug. 25, was able to breathe on his own for the past 24 hours, she said. Dangerfield fell into a "light coma" a couple of weeks ago, but "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 said in a statement issued through his publicist, Kevin Sasaki. She said Dangerfield remains in stable condition overall, and that "Our family remains optimistic that Rodney will make a complete recovery ..."
The statement appeared to conflict in some respects with previous information provided by Sasaki, who said last week that Dangerfield was conscious when friends and fellow entertainers such as Jay Leno, Roseanne, Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler visited him at the UCLA Medical Center. Dangerfield, famed for his self-deprecating one-liners and the catch phrase, "I can't get no respect," underwent the heart operation on Aug. 25 at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after enduring a string of health problems in recent years. The bulging-eyed comedian had double-bypass heart surgery in March of 2000 and an operation three months later to correct an aneurysm. He also suffered a mild heart attack in November, 2001.
Let's all pray and show some respect for the man who never gets any. Hang in there, old boy. |