Family expects Coretta Scott King to recover from stroke

<p>Coretta Scott King's daughter said the family is expecting a full recovery after King had a minor heart attack and a major stroke that impaired her ability to speak and affected her right side.</p><p>A doctor said Thursday that King is "completely aware."</p><p>Dr. Charles Wickliffe, a cardiologist at Piedmont Hospital, where the widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has been hospitalized since Tuesday, said a blood clot moved from King's heart and lodged in an artery in the left side of her brain.</p><p>"This same clot caused a small heart attack and a big stroke," said Wickliffe, addressing reporters as he was flanked by King's four children.</p><p>King remained in fair condition early Friday morning.</p><p>Her daughter, Yolanda King, said she was stricken about 10 a.m. Tuesday at her home in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood. She said they were having a conversation when her mother suddenly stopped talking. Family members immediately took her to the hospital.</p><p>"We are completely assured she will come to a complete recovery. We believe this is a cleverly disguised opportunity to grow," Yolanda King said.</p><p>The stroke caused weakness in King's right arm, her right leg and the right side of her face, and she was not able to speak, Wickliffe said. He said she would remain in the hospital for days and would need intensive therapy.</p><p>"We have to retrain the right side of her body to do the normal things that you do," Wickliffe said.</p><p>He said she was on intravenous and oral blood thinners to prevent any further occurrences. Wickliffe said King was prepared for the long days of rehabilitation.</p><p>Thursday was the first time all siblings were able to be at the hospital. One daughter, Bernice, was in Africa and a son, Dexter, was in Los Angeles.</p><p>"We thank the public for all their prayers and support," said the other son, Martin Luther King III.</p><p>The family had not disclosed her condition before, he said, but "We thought is was very important to bring some clarity."</p><p>Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson came to the hospital Thursday, although he did not visit King's bedside.</p><p>"The good news is, she is a tough person and she is going to survive this," Jackson told reporters.</p><p>The Alabama-born Coretta Scott was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music when a friend introduced her to Martin Luther King Jr., a young Baptist minister working toward a Ph.D. at Boston University. They married in 1953 and had four children.</p><p>After his assassination in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968, she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta and traveled widely to help foster her husband's dreams.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cde0ac)</p>

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