Ex-Joint Chiefs chairman responsive after stroke
From Kathleen Koch
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Retired Gen. John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, is responsive and "looking good," a friend said, after being hospitalized last weekend for a brain hemorrhage.
Bill Harrison, a retired lieutenant general and friend, said he visited Shalikashvili Tuesday afternoon in the intensive care unit of Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington.
"He's looking good. His color was good," Harrison said.
The general had fallen ill at his home in Steilacoom, Washington, just after midnight Friday and was admitted to Madigan Saturday morning.
Doctors removed a clot in his brain.
According to Harrison, doctors at the hospital believe Shalikashvili is able to process thoughts and hear and understand those around him. Harrison explained the general is communicating with his wife, Joan, by squeezing her hand once for no, twice for yes.
Hospital spokesman Sharon Ayala says Shalikashvili remains in guarded condition.
Harrison said that in early July, before Shalikashvili spoke at the Democratic National Convention, the general had been hospitalized for 36 hours after suffering an episode believed at the time to be a mild stroke.
The 68-year-old, born in Poland, became the first foreign-born chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993. He held the post until his retirement in 1997.
Prior to that, he was NATO's 10th supreme allied commander in Europe.
Shalikashvili was drafted into the Army in 1958 and rose through the ranks, serving in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969 and heading up the 1991 international relief operation that airlifted food to and provided protection for the Kurds in Northern Iraq.
After the general was hospitalized, Kerry released a statement wishing him a speedy recovery and calling him "a good friend, a trusted advisor, and a great American whose life and example embody the values at the heart of America -- opportunity, service and family."
