Ike's Biggest Battle

Through one medical crisis after an other, Dwight Eisenhower has shown an astonishing ability to beat the odds. Last week, at 78, he continued to do so, despite the most formidable complications he has ever faced.

Ike had entered Walter Reed Army Hospital ten months ago, after he had suffered his fourth heart attack. Three more followed in close succession. Then, last week, came a 2-hour, 20-minute operation to remove an obstruction in the lower intestine, which can be a serious test of surgical skill under the best of circumstances. Eisenhower's age and cardiac history, which made it extremely hazardous for him to undergo anesthesia, added to the operation's delicacy. Yet the obstruction had to be cleared. Specialists consulted with the patient and his wife, then they announced: "The General and Mrs. Eisenhower accepted the decision for surgery with equanimity."

Hours after the operation, General Eisenhower's fighting spirit seemed to be seeing him through. "He is a soldier," said a hospital information officer. "He is used to the discipline of a soldier.

He knows how to take orders as well as give them. He responds to the advice given to him." Ike was sipping tea and asking for his glasses so that he could do a little reading. Still, his doctors cautioned that two critical weeks must pass before he would be out of danger.

Condition Serious. To their dismay, the doctors soon discovered that Eisenhower had developed pneumonia in his right lung during his convalescence, a common postoperative occurrence among the elderly. While the pneumonia was being "treated vigorously" with antibiotics, the respiratory complication made it hard for Eisenhower to breathe.

When asked how much strain the new complication was putting on the former President's already-weakened heart, the doctors answered: "Considerable."

During most of her husband's stay in the three-room presidential suite, Mamie Eisenhower had been with him.

For a time while he was on the mend, she had moved back to the Gettysburg farm, making frequent visits to the hospital. Last week Mamie moved back into Walter Reed. Meanwhile, as he traveled through Europe, President Nixon was receiving frequent reports on his old boss's health.

By week's end, the doctors, who had been amazed by Ike's resilience, were not making any predictions. As in the past, the former President rallied just as the watching world feared the worst. Though his condition remained serious, he managed to down a portion of gelatine for dessert, which doctors said he "ate with relish." For all this, it was evident that the old soldier was waging the biggest battle of his life.

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