Doctor: Coretta Scott King suffered `big stroke'

<p>Coretta Scott King had a minor heart attack and a major stroke that impaired her ability to speak and affected her right side, a doctor said Thursday.</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 both the heart attack and stroke were caused by a blood clot from the heart that 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," the doctor said.</p><p>The stroke caused weakness in King's right arm, her right leg and the right side of her face, and she is not yet able to speak, Wickliffe said. He said he expected she would remain in the hospital for days to come 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.</p><p>"She's completely aware," he said. "She's not able yet to relay her wishes."</p><p>King was admitted to Piedmont Hospital Tuesday for an undisclosed illness and remained in fair condition Thursday. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson came to the hospital Thursday, although he didn't 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>

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