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Rev. Jerry Falwell was released from Lynchburg General Hospital this Wednesday morning, 9 days after he was rushed to the hospital by his wife Macel and had to be resuscitated in the parking lot. The Appomattox County Volunteer Rescue Squad, which by the grace of God happened to be in the hospital parking lot when Macel Falwell Jerry's wife brought her husband to the hospital, they had to get him breathing again. Doctors initially said Falwell suffered from congestive heart failure, the same thing the pope died of. The 71-year-old television evangelist and founder of the Moral Majority was in respiratory arrest (that means he stopped breathing) when he was admitted to Lynchburg General Hospital on March 28 and had to be resuscitated. He was put on a ventilator for the second time this year and listed in critical condition. "It was a close call," Falwell Jr. said. It was the second time this year that Falwell was hospitalized. He left the hospital March 4 after 13 days, spending part of the time on a ventilator because of what was described as a viral infection. The hospital released a statement and said the doctors have still not determined precisely what caused his lungs to fill with liquid. "There are a lot of theories," he said in a phone interview. "A lot of work and time is going into it, but nobody is willing to spout off and say, 'This is what caused it, and we can prevent it from being caused again.'" Jerry Falwell Jr. said his father had been coughing again prior to his second hospitalization just before midnight March 28. "His symptoms were similar to what they were the previous time," he said. Though Falwell has no memory of the night, he said he knows it was difficult for his wife. "Of course it was my wife that drove me alone, unconscious, from the house to the hospital," he said. "And I'm sure she was yelling all the way for help, because I had already passed out by the time I got to The Plaza. She tells me I was already lying down with my head on her shoulder. The Lord took care of me. It's a miracle, and I'm very thankful to be alive."
Now, he's going to stay home and rest, Falwell Jr. said. He won't be in the pulpit at Thomas Road Baptist Church on Sunday. "This time, I'm taking it a lot more seriously," the pastor said, "because I've had two altercations with death, and even a dumb guy will learn something after a while." |
