Respirator

Chris Schwenke, the boxer who lapsed into a coma after losing on a technical knockout in a light-heavyweight fight July 22 at the Forum against Prince Mohammed, was taken off a respirator Friday, and doctors said he was no longer in a life-threatening situation. "His condition has gone from critical to guarded," said Christie Plank, spokeswoman for Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood. Plank reported that Schwenke sat up with assistance later in the day, ate and talked.

He's back and it's so cool, so weird, a TMZ headline reading: "Kris Jenner Did Not Negotiate Lamar Odom's Clipper Deal. " He's one of the most likable athletes Los Angeles has come to know: talented but frustrating; charismatic yet disappointing; competitive and oh so deferential if not soft. His lifelong philosophy, he says, is to kill with kindness, and yet so often he seems to be wrapped in grief. PHOTOS: Lamar Odom through the years The hope is that things will always get better for Lamar, and here we go again.

An 11-year-old boy who survived being submerged in an icy river for nearly 45 minutes was taken off a respirator Tuesday, and he delighted relatives and physicians by asking for a soda and french fries. "He can talk and will continue to talk as the day progresses," Dr. William Norberg said of Alvaro Garza Jr. "He did complain about being hungry. He wanted a Coke and he wanted french fries. And then he wanted to know when he could go home."

Conflicting reports surfaced Tuesday on the state of Hosni Mubarak after the former Egyptian president was said to have suffered a stroke in prison. The state-run news agency MENA said that the 84-year-old Mubarak had suffered clinical death, but other reports say Mubarak was still on a respirator and not clinically dead,  according to state and independent news media . To add to the confusion, clinical death doesn't necessarily mean total death. "Clinical death" is a medical term meaning that breathing has ceased and the heart has stopped pumping blood around the body, but, for at least a short while, the brain is still alive.

He's back and it's so cool, so weird, a TMZ headline reading: "Kris Jenner Did Not Negotiate Lamar Odom's Clipper Deal. " He's one of the most likable athletes Los Angeles has come to know: talented but frustrating; charismatic yet disappointing; competitive and oh so deferential if not soft. His lifelong philosophy, he says, is to kill with kindness, and yet so often he seems to be wrapped in grief. PHOTOS: Lamar Odom through the years The hope is that things will always get better for Lamar, and here we go again.

A father who unhooked his premature baby from a respirator was acquitted of manslaughter in a case that examined the rights of parents in determining treatment for their children. Dr. Gregory Messenger showed little emotion other than a smile when the Lansing, Mich., jury returned its verdict after deliberating for four hours. Messenger acknowledges that he took the 1-pound, 11-ounce boy off the respirator a little more than an hour after he was delivered by Cesarean section on Feb. 8.

A 37-year-old paralyzed woman fighting for the right to be removed from a respirator died in Toms River, N.J., before the state's highest court could hear her case. A Superior Court judge ruled June 23 that Kathleen Farrell, who suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease, had the right to be taken off the respirator that was keeping her alive. However, he stayed the ruling so that the state Supreme Court could consider appeals by her sons, and an emergency hearing had been set for Tuesday.

A 5-year-old girl whose body had begun to reject her transplanted small intestine was able to breathe on her own Monday. Laura Davies of Manchester, Britain, was taken off a respirator Sunday and upgraded to critical but stable condition.

A 660-pound man died in an Argentine hospital Thursday, five days after eating a whole piglet for dinner, doctors said. Alfredo Rosales, 32, had been on a respirator in an intensive-care unit in La Plata, 40 miles from Buenos Aires, since feasting on the pig last Saturday.

Twelve days after suffering a stroke that left his right side paralyzed, Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert Lindsay underwent a tracheotomy Friday to aid his breathing, his office said. Lindsay, 89, remained in the intensive care unit at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood, where he was taken on Sept. 2 after collapsing at his home. A hospital spokeswoman said his condition remained stable and good.

Six weeks after he was taken to a hospital with pneumonia, Saudi Arabia's King Fahd is still on a respirator after undergoing a tracheotomy, with no sign of substantial improvement, diplomats and medical sources said. The king, who is about 83, is being treated by an international medical team in Riyadh. Fahd's lengthy hospitalization and the secrecy surrounding his treatment have triggered regular rumors of his death.

Former President Clinton was alert and talking Tuesday, a day after undergoing a heart operation to bypass four severely clogged arteries. Clinton remained in intensive care at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan and was "resting comfortably," according to a statement by his office. "He is awake and alert and talking with his family," the statement said. Doctors said the former president was taken off his respirator Monday night, a crucial step in his recovery.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for doctors to turn off life support for an Orange County boy kept alive for more than a year while his parents -- including the father accused of beating him -- argued about whether he should be allowed to die. Barring unexpected intervention by the U.S.

Actor Christopher Reeve has undergone an experimental surgery that doctors believe will enable him to breathe without a respirator for the first time since he broke his neck in a 1995 horseback-riding accident. Physicians at University Hospitals of Cleveland used minimally invasive surgery to implant tiny electrodes that control his breathing by stimulating the muscles of his diaphragm with a pacemaker-like device.

Miles Dabord, whom authorities hoped to question in connection with the disappearance of his brother, former NBA player Bison Dele, and two others, will soon be removed from the apparatus that has been keeping him alive, his mother said Tuesday. Patricia Phillips said a joint memorial service is being planned for her sons, Dabord and Dele, a former Clipper and Santa Monica St.

President Vaclav Havel has been taken off of a respirator and is feeling better after surgery for lung cancer, said doctors in Prague, the capital. Surgeon Pavel Pafko said in a statement that the president was able to speak again now that a tube had been removed from his throat. Doctors removed a tumor from Havel's right lung earlier this month. After the surgery, he developed pneumonia and was put on a respirator.

Rep. John E. Grotberg (R-Ill.) has emerged from a five-week coma, a complication of experimental cancer therapy, and is weakly gesturing to communicate while on a respirator, an aide said today. "He's still very weak," Grotberg's press secretary, Steve Trossman, said. The congressman, however, "is mouthing words. They can lip-read some words."

Mother Teresa, beloved for spending most of her 85 years ministering to the poorest of the poor, suffered a reduced flow of blood to her heart Friday. Doctors kept her on a respirator for a second day. Doctors were giving Mother Teresa an anticoagulant to ease the flow of blood through her left ventricle, one of the four chambers of the heart, which failed Friday. Her temperature was still 100 degrees, and she was receiving anti-malaria drugs.

Michael Halsell, the Newbury Park teenager who was shocked and critically injured last week while rappelling from an electrical tower, was temporarily taken off a respirator Monday and was speaking with doctors and relatives. Larry Weinberg, a spokesman for the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said that Halsell was talking and breathing without a respirator, but warned that the 17-year-old's condition was still extremely critical.