The Time of Healing

It was a week of healing. The dead muscle tissue in President Eisenhower's heart had been carried away in the blood stream by "scavenger" cells, and new building cells were coming in to set up the fibrous tissue that would be a scar on the front wall of his heart.

The improvement in the President's condition could be charted by what his physicians were letting him do. His diet became more flexible. In midweek, former Sergeant John Moaney, the President's valet, stewed up a kettle of Ike's famed two-day vegetable soup, brought it to the hospital for a lunch. Physicians permitted the addition of the first personal item to the hospital room since the President entered it. Up on a bureau, where Ike could see it, went a color picture of grandson David Eisenhower, wearing a black cowboy hat and holding a fishing rod.

Important Gifts. One day Army Nurse Lorraine Knox brought in two copies of a quiz book she found in the hospital bookstore, and for two hours the President and the nurse worked at quizzes. Before the week was out, he was permitted to read for the first time since he became ill. But his greatest pleasure came when he opened a package from his grandchildren: Susan, 3, Barbara Anne, 6 1/2, and David, 7#189;. Each child had sent an original drawing. David also sent a book, a 25-c- volume called The Mackenzie Raid by Colonel Red Reeder, a story of action on the Texas border around 1873. Each of the children filled out the personally wrapped packages with the most precious gift of all: two sticks of bubble gum. Showered with such important gifts, the President of the U.S. laughed more and felt better than he had at any time since he was stricken.

As the week went by, the nature of the business submitted to the President gradually went up the scale of importance. With his signature on papers prepared and cleared by the Government departments concerned, the President approved a whole series of important appointments, e.g., that of Herbert V. Prochnow, 58, a Chicago banker, as Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. By week's end the President was well enough to hold his first important business conferences since he became ill, conferred twice with Vice President Richard Nixon (see below). This week he planned to confer with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles on the forthcoming Big Four Foreign Ministers' conference in Geneva.

He Wants to Walk. At the beginning of his third week of recovery, the President's physicians held two days of consultations and then--at a press conference--described his condition and outlined his prospects for the immediate future. The patient, said Boston Heart Specialist Paul Dudley White, is progressing satisfactorily. He looks and feels well; his temperature, pulse (low 70s) and blood pressure (132 over 80) are normal, and his circulation is excellent. His spirits and morale are good, his mind alert. In order to keep him "from bubbling over and to protect his heart from his overactive brain," he is given a small dose of sedatives when he awakens each morning. No complications have appeared, and they are now unlikely--but not impossible.

This week he would continue to rest in bed. If the weather permits, he will occasionally be pushed in his hospital bed out on the porches at each end of the hospital's eighth floor. In his conferences with Secretary Dulles and others, he will be "allowed to express his opinions," said Dr. White; letters he signs could well represent his own views. In the event of a real crisis requiring presidential decision, he would be fully able to act in reaching it.

Next week, the fourth week of recovery, the President may be carried or lifted to a chair; he will be permitted to paint a little while in bed. By the end of that week he may be sitting up all day. If all goes well, he will be allowed to have one business conference a day, may have a friend or two in to visit. In the fifth week, he probably will take a few steps; in the sixth he should be able to walk slowly. At the end of the sixth week, or about Nov. 6, he should be able to walk to the Columbine III for the flight east, but he may stay in Denver another week. Said Dr. White: "He doesn't wish to be carried onto the plane even if by so doing he could get away from here earlier."

After he goes east, the President will have to spend several weeks recuperating at his farm in Gettysburg. It will be nearly the end of the year before he will be ready to return to the White House. As for the long run, Dr. White refused to speculate. Said he: "The ultimate future is favorable, but any question about what he might be doing a year from now--such questions are unanswerable."

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